Introduce fixed quota for students entering secondary schools without affiliation or DSA: Gho Sze Kee

The Ministry of Education should consider setting aside a fixed quota for students entering secondary schools without affiliation or under the Direct School Admission (DSA) exercise, Gho Sze Kee suggested in Parliament on Wednesday (Feb 4).

This will ensure a "meaningful and predictable" number of available places for students applying through the Secondary 1 posting exercise with their PSLE results, the MP for Mountbatten SMC said.

Gho also asked if there is a "compression" of available places for non-affiliated students, given that some students who enter through the DSA route "eat" into the slots reserved for non-affiliated students if they also fall into this category.

In response, Minister for Education Desmond Lee said that school’s balloting rate ultimately depends on school choices, students’ decisions and DSA numbers.

"The ministry will certainly study all of these suggestions," he added.

According to the ministry's guidelines, secondary schools are allowed to admit up to 20 per cent of their students through DSA, which allows Primary 6 students to gain early admission based on talent in areas such as sports and the arts.

Gho had also filed another question on whether DSA offers reduce the Secondary One quota available for students from non-affiliated schools.

To that, Senior Minister of State for Education Dr Janil Puthucheary said that the ministry requires affiliated secondary schools to reserve at least 20 per cent of their Secondary One cohort for non-affiliated students.

Even so, non-affiliated students comprise about half the Secondary One cohort of affiliated secondary schools, he added.

"While DSA admissions do not reduce the number of Secondary One places available in schools, non-affiliated students admitted via the exercise will be considered as taking up a place."

Dr Janil said that in the past five years there have been only two instances of where a secondary school with affiliation filled all its reserved places in one posting group for non-affiliated students via DSA.

But non-affiliated students were still admitted through the other posting groups, he added.

[[nid:729174]]

chingshijie@asiaone.com