Singapore Maths Tuition - University and JC

23 February 2019

Singapore Management University president Lily Kong has announced a new initiative to ensure that all its students head abroad at least once during the course of their undergraduate studies.

She announced that SMU students can look forward to more global exposure opportunities with the set-up of Global Centres around the world, starting with cities like Bangkok and Manila.

She said the centres will be SMU’s “footprint in these cities”, helping to coordinate the university’s activities such as student internships.

The overseas centres will also be the base for SMU to offer executive education programmes to corporate companies in the region.

SMU will be launching City Dialogues to engage the broader community in discourse on topics such as reducing inequality and remaking the economy.

21 February 2019

The Ministry of Education’s lifelong learning programme for Singapore will enter its third phase soon, with the ministry making enhancements to previously announced initiatives, for example, reducing the examination load, and setting up of an inter-agency taskforce to help children from disadvantaged homes.

Mr Ong Ye Kung said that these moves will constitute a significant thrust and will culminate in a multi-year effort to significantly upgrade Singapore’s education system.

Mr Ong said the changes are being made in consultation with other fourth-generation (4G) leaders.

“It’s not just the Budget debate, but for any announcements now that come from any of the younger ministers, there’s a good chance that we have gone through a debate and careful deliberation before coming up with these new things,” he added.

19 February 2019

Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said that parents have to adapt to the nation’s evolving educational system.

He said that students need the right mix of high expectations and encouragement, as well as the space to think independently and creatively.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam was speaking at an education conference organized by Hwa Chong Institution.

Citing studies in the United States on the trend of “helicopter parenting”, Mr Tharman said that such behaviour has negative long-term psychological effects on their offspring.

At the same time, Singapore’s system of meritocracy must also keep adapting to sustain social mobility.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam extolled the virtues of the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme, which recognises talents outside pupils’ academic results.

16 February 2019

From this year onwards, GCE A-Level graduates who opt to enrol in a polytechnic can be admitted directly to Year 1 Semester 2. This will reduce the total course duration to two-and-a-half years.

Places for A-Level graduates at Singapore’s polytechnics have been separately catered for, and there will be no impact on the number of places for O-Level graduates or Institute of Technical Education graduates.

About 200 A-Level graduates are admitted each year to the five local polytechnics — Nanyang, Ngee Ann, Republic, Singapore and Temasek.

Currently, most A-Level graduates apply for and enrol in a polytechnic only one year after getting their results. This is because most polytechnic admissions exercises would have closed by the time the A-Level results are released. Now, A-Level graduates who are not enlisting in National Service will be able to enter the polytechnics in the same year that they receive their results.

This year, the results of the GCE A-Level examinations will be released on Feb 22. Students may collect their results from their schools from 2.30pm on that day, while private candidates will be notified of their results by post.

15 February 2019

Tampines Junior College has released an interactive Web documentary on the daily lives of some of its former students and staff.

The video is one of 11 projects that will be showcased at The Future Of Our Pasts Festival, which runs from Feb 16 to March 17.

The festival is organised by Yale-NUS College in support of the Singapore Bicentennial. The university has also provided funding for the projects being presented.

TPJC merged with Meridian JC to become Tampines Meridian JC this year.

The interactive documentary on TPJC was a final-year project done by a group of undergraduates from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University.

The undergraduate team is also preparing for an exhibition launch on at The Future Of Our Pasts Festival.

14 February 2019

National University of Singapore will soon launch a new Design-Your-Own-Module initiative, which allows undergraduates to design their own modules and take greater ownership of their learning.

Under this scheme, interested students will organise themselves into groups of at least ten and submit a proposal to an NUS faculty mentor or to their home faculty for approval.

Participants can arrange for themselves to be tutored by a guest speaker from the industry, or they may opt to select modules from a suite of online courses offered by edX, a not-for-profit open online course provider created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Another initiative that NUS will implement soon gives polytechnic graduates with entrepreneurial abilities a better chance of getting into the university. The five polytechnics can nominate up to 200 graduating students to be considered for admission.

Also, a scheme that gives A-Level applicants bonus points for their first-choice courses will be extended to polytechnic graduates as well as students with either NUS High School or International Baccalaureate qualifications.