2009 is the first year MOE (Ministry Of Education) introduces the “Refined Promotion Criteria” for Normal stream (N-level) students. Prior to 2009, almost half (53%) of the Normal stream students moved on to the ITE (Institute Of Technical Education) path, irrespective of whether they studied 4 or 5 years in their secondary school. With the refinement in promotion criteria to Sec 5N, MOE wants students moving on to Sec 5N to show greater motivation to gear towards higher learning, with strong determination to progress to the polytechnics.
Effects Of Refined Promotion Criteria
One of the main ideas of the refinement is to encourage Normal stream student to opt for ITE after Sec-4 rather than going through Sec-5N. According to statistics, as much as 40% of the Sec-5N students could not make it to polytechnics and junior college. The refinement aims to reduce the percentage as much as possible so as to cut down the wastage spent on studying in Sec-5. Correspondingly, to encourage students to join ITE after N level examinations, additional options were offered to make entrance into ITE easier.
Most notably, the standard of N level examinations was also raised to align with the expected admission requirements of the polytechnics. This means that the academic gap between Normal stream and Express stream is made narrower. For example, N-level math textbook used to be at least 4 chapters less than Express Math textbook. This means that at Secondary 3, a Sec-3N level student would study at least 12 chapters less than his Sec-3 Express counterpart. With the refinement, the difference between Normal stream and Express stream is only 2 chapters per year.
Narrower Gap Between Normal and Express Streams
Prior to 2009, Sec-4N student entering into Sec-5 always find themselves a far distance away from their counterparts doing Sec-4 Express. Most N-level school teachers will tell their students that they are 3-grades below their Express counterpart when they go into the O-level year. The big gap is too great for N-level student to leap over to face the O-level. This is why only 60% of the Sec-5 students made it to Poly.
One question naturally comes to mind is: If the difference between N-level and O-level is so narrow, why not pursue the path of O-level instead? Why opt for Normal stream if a student has to study almost as much as an Express student? For the highly motivated N-level student, this is where you can beat the N-level system.
N-Level Lateral Transfer
The approach is to find a way to switch over to the Express stream in either secondary 1 or secondary 2. This is workable as most schools offer their top Normal Academic (NA) students lateral transfer in Secondary 1 and 2 to Express stream (Sec-1NA to Sec-1E and Sec-2NA to Sec-2E). Some schools are known to offer as high as 40% for their N-level students to switch over to Express stream after Sec 1.
For students in Normal Technical (NT) stream, the switch is more challenging as they have to make it in Secondary 1, the golden year for NT-To-NA Switch. This means that if they work very hard in Sec-1NT, they would stand a good chance to be transferred to Sec-2NA. Missing this golden year would mean that they are going to miss the transfer train.
For Those Who Are Not So Academically Inclined
Even if the student is not so academically inclined, he can still work as hard as possible to catch the transfer train. If he is successful to move on the Secondary 3 Express, he can slow down to take a breather. Secondary 3 is always the hardest year in the secondary education and most school would allow students to repeat 1 year. With the repeat, a student will still make it to O-level in 5 year.
In summary, Normal Academic students can work hard for the O-level path by:
Sec-1-NA –> Sec-2 Express –> Sec-3 Express –> Repeat Sec-3 if hard to cope –> Sec-4 O-Level
For Normal Technical Student, working hard for the O-level path means:
Sec-1-NT –> Sec-2 NA –> Sec-3 Express –> Repeat Sec-3 if cannot cope –> Sec-4 O-level
Beating The N-Level system
To be eligible for lateral transfer, most schools require their Normal stream students to excel in English, Math and Science. Though it is possible to achieve good grades on these subjects through school teaching, it would be better if the student can engage a tutor in additional to classroom teaching. It would even be better if the tutor can teach the complete Express syllabus, covering the extra chapters in the Express stream.
Beating the N-level system will work only if it starts in Sec-1. To all Sec-1 N-level students: work hard and you shall beat the system …