2009 is the first year Ministry Of Education (MOE) introduces the “Refined Promotion Criteria” for Normal stream (N-level) students. According to statistics more than half of the Normal stream students moved on to ITE (Institute Of Technical Education), irrespective of whether they studied 4 or 5 years in their secondary school. Refined Promotion Criteria is aiming at the Sec-5 students who passed N-level Exams and move on to their fifth year to sit for O-level. Prior to 2009, only 60% of these Sec-5 students are making it into Polytechnics or Junior College. This is considered a great waste as these students who spend one additional year in Sec-5 are back to the ITE path.
Focus Of Refined Promotion Criteria
Prior to 2009, Sec-4N student entering into Sec-5 always find themselves a far distance away from their counterparts in Sec-4 Express. Most N-level school teachers would tell their students that they were 2-grades below their Express counterpart when they entered Sec-5 O-level year. Those who scored A1 in Sec-4 N-level were only able to reach B3 when taking the same test with the O-level year Express students. The big gap is too great for N-level student to leap over to face the O-level. This is why 40% of the Sec-5N students could not make it to polytechnics and junior college.
The main idea of MOE’s Refined Promotion Criteria is to encourage Normal stream student to opt for ITE after Sec-4 rather than to advance to Sec-5N. To achieve this objective, the standard of N level examinations was raised substantially to align with the expected admission requirements of the polytechnics. The refinement also offers additional options to make entrance into ITE easier. In essence, refined promotion criteria aims to ensure that students who move on to Sec 5N show greater motivation to gear towards higher learning, with strong determination to progress to the polytechnics.
Narrower Gap Between Normal Academic And Express
Refined promotion criteria effectively narrow the gap between Normal Academic (NA) stream and Express stream. For example, before the refinement, NA math textbook was consistently at least 4 chapters less than Express Math textbook, from Sec-1NA to Sec-3NA. This means that at Secondary 3, a Sec-3NA student would study at least 12 chapters less than his counterpart in Sec-3 Express. With the refinement, the difference between Normal stream and Express stream is made narrower each year. By the end of Sec-3, a Normal Academic student would be only 6 to 8 chapters behind an Express student. The NA student would then study one extra year (Sec-4NA) to reach the required standard which is comparable to his counterpart in Sec-3 Express.
One question naturally comes to mind is: If the difference between NA and Express is so narrow, why not pursue the path of Express instead? Why opt for Normal stream if a student has to study almost as much as an Express student? This is where a highly motivated N-level student can beat the N-level system.
NA Transfer Promotion To Express
Normal Academic student can beat the N-level system by working hard for transfer promotion into Express stream, either after secondary 1 or secondary 2. All schools offer transfer promotion, either from Sec-1NA to Sec-2E or Sec-2NA to Sec-3E, for students who has attained academic achievements stipulated by the school. Some schools with good N-level teaching resources are known to transfer promote more than 50% of their N-level students to Express stream.
For students in Normal Technical (NT) stream, the switch is more challenging as they can only achieve transfer promotion in Secondary 1 (from Sec-1NT to Sec-2NA). If they miss this golden year of NT-To-NA transfer promotion, they will only be allowed for lateral transfer (Sec 2-NT to Sec 2-NA, etc) in subsequent years. However, if a NT student indeed achieves transfer promotion from Sec-1NT to Sec-2NA, he can work even harder and ride on the transfer wave to move into Sec-3E, beating the N-Level system all the way.
Beating The N-Level system
In summary, N-level system can only be beaten in lower secondary. Normal Academic students can work hard for the O-level path by:
Sec-1-NA –> Sec-2 Express –> Sec-3 Express –> Sec-4 O-Level
As for Normal Technical student, working hard for the O-level path means:
Sec-1-NT –> Sec-2 NA –> Sec-3 Express –> Sec-4 O-level