7 new schools to offer IP
IN a first for Singapore, three secondary schools will come together to provide students for a new Junior College.
The all-boys Catholic High School and the all-girls CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' and Singapore Chinese Girls' schools have banded together to create a new Integrated Programme (IP). The IP will begin with the Secondary 1 cohort of 2013.
With this move, all the students in the three schools are on a six-year programme that will see them heading to a new as-yet-unnamed government junior college after four years in each school. The new JC will offer the A-level examinations and open in 2017.
The three are among seven schools that have got the approval from the Ministry of Education to give up the O levels for an IP leading to A levels or the International Baccalaureate (IB). The expansion of the IP to more schools was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally on Sunday (Aug 29).
This will bring the proportion of each cohort enrolled in an IP up from 8 per cent to 12 per cent.
'We are very pleased. We had been applying for the programme at every opportunity, but it was only now that we hit upon the right formula,' said Catholic High School principal Mr Lee Hak Boon. The school has been trying to get an IP in place since 2006.
The other alliances will see the all-boys' Victoria School and Cedar Girls' Secondary School partnering with Victoria Junior College and the Methodist Girls' School tying up with Anglo Chinese School (Independent). St Joseph's Institution (SJI) will expand to offer a six-year programme leading to the IB.
