Integrated Programme

The Integrated Programme (Abbreviation: IP), also known as through-train programme (直通车), is a scheme which allows the cream of secondary schools in Singapore to bypass the "O" levels and take the "A" levels, International Baccalaureate or an equivalent examination directly at the age of 18 after six years of secondary education.

Overview

The programme allows for more time allocated to enrichment activities. That is, without the "O" level examinations, the students has more time and flexibility to immerse themselves in a more broad base education which will eventually lead to the "A" levels examination. In addition, the students enjoy more freedom in the combination of subjects. Generally, only the top performers are eligible to be part of the IP programme, due to the limited amount of schools which have the funds to implement it, as it is currently regarded as experimental. Thus most of the main body of the students pursue their secondary education at the current pace by first completing a 4-year O Level before going on to a 2-year "A" level education (vs. a 2-year "O" level and 4-year "A" level education).

A-level Programmes

Pioneered by top schools such as Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls School (Secondary), Hwa Chong Institution (then The Chinese High School) and Nanyang Girls' High School in 2004, the "Integrated Programme" allows students to skip the "O" levels at secondary 4 and go straight into the Junior College (JC). Wanting to provide a similar holistic education for their students, National Junior College, Victoria Junior College, Temasek Junior College also followed suit.

In the Hwa Chong Affiliate Programme, Hwa Chong Institution (college) also grants entry to students from other schools apart from Nanyang Girls' High School and Hwa Chong Institution (High School) based on their O Level results. Hwa Chong Institution (College) section also offers the Direct School Admission (DSA) in which Secondary Four students can apply for a place in Year 5 of the College section.

National Junior College (NJC) has also put out its own programme, the National Junior College Integrated Programme (NJCIP) where Secondary Two students in various schools are picked to join their programme. These students have their Secondary Three and Four education in the JC itself, followed by the JC course. Victoria Junior College (VJC) and Temasek Junior College (TJC) have also taken a similar approach.

Dunman High School applied for the Integrated Programme system in mid-2004 standalone, and MOE approved the first batch to be enrolled in 2005, with Year 1 and Year 3 students, each having a cap of about 135 out of 380 students. Full IP was granted in late 2005, and the school went full IP with the beginning of the academic year of 2006.

River Valley High School joined the Integrated Programme system in late 2005 by operating a six year course standalone. It is the last to join the ranks of the schools offering Integrated Programme before the Ministry of Education had closed the gates to the special system. This ensures that students who are under the Integrated Programme are able to cope with their A levels after bypassing their O levels. All the schools allowed in the scheme accepts the top 10% of the national cohort.

International Baccalaureate Program

2 secondary schools in Singapore, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and St Josephs Institution (International), have allowed some students to abandon the British system and go Swiss by dropping the GCE exams all together and adopting the International Baccalaureate (IB), having been fully authorized as an IB World Schools. The IB is perceived by some as a more holistic program than the Cambridge examinations, making students take both arts and science subjects as well as philosophy courses and extensive research papers.

NUS High School Diploma

NUS High School offers a different Integrated Programme. NUS High School of Mathematics and Science is a school which specializes in math and science, but also aims to develop all-rounded students through its Diploma curriculum, which allows rigour and depth, or flexibility and breadth. NUS High School is also affiliated and very closely linked to NUS. Students in this school graduate with the NUS High School diploma, which has been accredited by NUS, NTU, and SMU, and is still in the process of gaining more recognition from overseas well-known Universities and colleges. For placement into overseas universities, they also take the SATs and APs.

Gifted Education

The 5 independent secondary schools which currently offers IP have organized School-Based Gifted Education (SBGE), instead of GEP, to meet the needs of the intellectually gifted. The five schools are Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Hwa Chong Institution, Nanyang Girls' High School, Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), and Raffles Institution.

Dunman High School also offers two SBGE classes to cater for ex-GE students, and for a special few in the school who are considered exceptional in their academic achievements and learning attitude. It is the only autonomous school to offer SBGE-IP classes.

List of schools offering Integrated Programme

* Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)
* Dunman High School
* Hwa Chong Institution
* Nanyang Girls' High School
* National Junior College
* NUS High School of Mathematics and Science
* Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)
* Raffles Institution
* River Valley High School
* Temasek Junior College
* Victoria Junior College

Negative Effects

Without the intervening "O"-Level exams, the core knowledge learnt may not be deeply rooted in some of the students. Students may therefore face a problem when trying to pursue special programmes that involve research and other extra curricular activity. This programme, according to the Singapore Ministry of Education, is for students who can benefit from a less structured syllabus, and who are “clearly university bound”, where they engage in more independent learning, such as taking up "special programmes" to help them develop their personal interests, on top of the core content based lessons. For example, in Hwa Chong Institution there are the Humanities Programme, Chinese Language Elective Programme and the Science and Maths Talents Programme.

Some have also raised the point in the Straits Times that since the A levels follows a structured format, some IP students may well be at a disadvantage compared to their mainstream counterparts though they have a high intellectual capacity.

The success of an IP student is based on one assumption, that the students are extremely self-disciplined. So much so that they will make sure that they manage their time so well and that they diligent in their studies that they will remember all the core contents taught to them and yet find enough time to engage actively in independent learning.

However, this may be considered a utopian ideal. Without an important watershed intervening national examination to help them focus, students may simply let their guard down.

This programme is allegedly for clearly university bound students. Thus it can be inferred that if an IP student does not perform to expectations in his/her A Levels which is rare because the number of IP retainees is almost very few, he/she will face drastic consequences. For non-IP students that do perform poorly in their A Levels, they will still have an O Level certificate to fall back on, which can at least get them a mediocre job. However, without this safety net, once IP students have failed their A-Levels, they will be left with no qualifications except their PSLE certificate, which in Singapore is not useful at all.

Whether the negative effects of IP as pointed out above are true will be revealed around March 2008, when the first batch of IP students receive their A-Level results.