This comes after a common Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate exam will replace the O-Levels and N-Levels from 2027.
Starting from the 2024 Secondary 1 batch, all students will be posted into secondary schools in three groups, mapped from the existing score ranges for the Express, Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams.
The three posting groups will be used to facilitate school admission and guide the subject levels students offer at the start of the year, said the Ministry of Education (MOE).
“Beyond that, posting groups will not shape the secondary school experience,” said Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing in his speech during the Committee of Supply debates on Wednesday (Mar 1).
This ensures that schools continue to admit students with diverse strengths, and students continue to have access to a wide range of schools, he added.
“By admitting students from different posting groups, schools can also enable diversity at the class level, with mixed form classes that comprise students offering subjects at different subject levels,” said Mr Chan.
In schools that take in students from multiple posting groups, mixed form classes mean each class will be made up of students from different posting groups, taking subjects at different levels.
With full subject-based banding implemented across 120 schools from next year, students will sit for a common Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) exam from 2027, regardless of their initial posting group.
The SEC will replace the current O-Level and N-Level certificates, which current students sit for at the end of four or five years in secondary school.
The option of spending a fifth year in secondary school will remain available to students who want to take subjects at a more demanding level, said Mr Chan.
About 80 per cent of secondary schools will implement full subject-based banding, said MOE.
The remaining schools include integrated programme schools such as Raffles Institution, which only accept students from posting group 3 – currently the Express stream. Crest Secondary School will also remain a specialised school that offers a customised curriculum for students in posting group 1 – currently the Normal (Technical) stream.
However, these schools can still allow students to take subjects at a more demanding or less demanding level, said MOE.
Currently, students can already take English, mathematics, science and mother tongue at a higher level in Secondary 1 if they did well in the subjects at the PSLE. This option will be expanded to humanities subjects at Secondary 2 from 2024.