15 February 2018

Ngee Ann Polytechnic has introduced a new full-time diploma programme in international trade and business (ITB).

The diploma programme aims to educate students in international trade practices and supply chain management, as well as enable students to master skills in finance, purchasing and logistics.

Graduates can look forward to careers in global trade and be able to adapt to an increasingly digitalised industry.

ITB students will also have the opportunity to travel overseas for learning trips and immersion programmes.

05 February 2018

Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications and Information and the Ministry of Education, has said that Singapore will remain staunchly pro-science, and supportive of the pursuit of scientific excellence.

He was speaking at the Grand Ceremony of the International Science Youth Forum 2018 recently held at Hwa Chong Institution.

“We are, across secondary schools and all the institutes of higher learning, making a very determined push to take these fundamental building blocks of knowledge, or cognitive skills, of academic learning, and, to be polite about it, encourage both students and educators to think about how these skills must be applied to real-world problems, industry challenges and social challenges,” Dr Janil said in his speech.

The Government of Singapore will remain strongly focused on moving forward in scientific endeavours. A record $19 billion has been budgeted for science and technology research over the next half decade. The amount, part of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan, works out to about $4 billion annually, equivalent to around 1 per cent of Singapore’s gross domestic product.

07 August 2017

Students applying for the computer science degree course at the National University of Singapore can now attempt a fast-track admission procedure in which they enrol in a five-month-long programming course at the varsity.

If the students are able to obtain good results in the programming course, they can be admitted into the degree programme, even if they had previously fallen short of the required GCE ‘A’ level grades traditionally used as the sole entrance criteria.

NUS provost Professor Tan Eng Chye, who was recently named the president-designate for the university, said that NUS is aiming to admit more students by via aptitude tests in their chosen field of study.

Currently, only about 12 per cent of the 7,000 freshmen ranging from courses such as medicine, law and architecture, gain admission through assessment of aptitude, as well as through portfolio reviews, interviews and other entrance tests. The majority of freshmen are still admitted based on their A-level, International Baccalaureate or polytechnic diploma exam results.

07 June 2017

The turnover of teaching staff at the School of the Arts (SOTA) has left some students concerned about the impact of such departures on their learning.

Students have sometimes seen their coursework supervisors leave halfway through the year. Internally assessed coursework constitute anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent of the final grade.

The issue of staff attrition at SOTA came under the spotlight recently after year 6 student Calleen Koh wrote down the names of teachers who had left on at least 20 pieces of paper, which were then folded into aeroplanes and placed outside the general office. Her work was removed hastily by the school which claimed it was put up without any explanations.

SOTA principal Lim Geok Cheng said that the perception that a large number of teachers are leaving the school at the same time may be due to there being popular windows when teachers choose to leave, such as after they collect their performance bonus or to time it with the June holidays. This however does not explain why the perception of high staff turnover does not appear in other educational institutions in Singapore.

One teacher said that he left because he was worried the school was more focused on attracting academically bright students instead of those with a bigger interest in the arts.

Another claimed that department heads didn’t quite understand what it means for literature to flourish in an open-minded and critical climate.