JC vs Poly

A RECORD number of school leavers fresh off the O-level boat have made it to the polytechnics this year.

And, continuing a trend that began a few years ago, many of these poly students did well enough in the O levels to have gone to a junior college (JC), but chose a polytechnic education instead.

About 20,640 of these school leavers have been posted to the five polytechnics, where they will earn diplomas in three years. The intake is 800 more than last year.

The new high comes despite there having been fewer O-level candidates last year than in 2007. As a consequence of that dip, the number posted to the polytechnics, JCs, Millennia Institute and the Institutes of Technical Education under the Education Ministry's Joint Admissions Exercise was also smaller.

The polytechnics' gain shrank the overall intake for the JCs, and also for Millennia Institute, where students take the A levels after three years. (See chart.)

One school leaver contributing to the tilt in favour of the polys is former Anderson Secondary student Ranjini Visvalingam, 17, who scored six points in her O levels. She could have made it to just about any junior college, but opted for Republic Polytechnic's biomedical science course.

Noting that her friends have queried her choice of a polytechnic over the more academic junior-college track, she said: "But I've already decided what I want to do – get an advance diploma in biomedical science and go on to Monash for a degree – so there is no need to go to a JC."
Melbourne's Monash University has a programme with Republic Polytechnic where students get on a fast track to a degree.

In response to the demand, the five polytechnics have opened up 25,700 places, about 700 more than last year.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic raised its number of vacancies by 150 to 5,250.
Republic Polytechnic principal Yeo Li Pheow has seen a 60 per cent leap in applicants who made the poly – the newest among the five – their first choice.

And they are coming in with stronger grades too.
"It's definitely a good sign for polys that students eligible for JC choose to go to the polys. It's a personal choice they make," he said.

Among the 18 JCs, the high-end ones have had no change in intake size, though a few, like Serangoon and Tampines, have smaller intakes this year.
The heads of JCs and of Millennia Institute contacted are not overly concerned that their schools now seem less popular.

Millennia Institute's Tan Chor Pang said a core of students will always pick the A-level route, which is still regarded as better preparation for higher education.
But he conceded that the JCs and Millennia Institute can do more to court potential students; the polys, he said, "are more aggressive and define their courses in a very attractive way, being up to date and relevant to industry. Students are attracted to that".
He added that this year's single intake for JCs might have also shrunk the demand for JCs.

Previously, students admitted provisionally could try out JC life until the O- level results came out in March, but "in the absence of the first three months of JC, there is no longer a natural platform to experience JC education", he said.

Ms Helen Choo, the principal of the mid-tier Tampines Junior College, said students may be going to the polytechnics because they are focused and know what they want, be it mass communications or hospitality studies.

JCs' future intakes could be uncertain, she said, given declining enrolment resulting from a declining birth rate and an explosion of choices for school leavers.

Yishun Junior College, on the other hand, took in slightly more students this year, just under 600. Vice-principal Wong Mun Wah said the JC's efforts at selling itself as a "value-added" school have paid off, as has the flexibility in subject combinations that it gives its students.

janeng@sph.com.sg

Where the O-level students have gone

Number who sat for the O levels

2008: 36,640
2007: 38,450

Number posted to their next school under Joint Admissions Exercise

This year: 34,400
Last year: 34,800

Number posted to junior colleges

This year: 11,008
Last year: 11,484

Number posted to Millennia Institute for the three-year A level course

This year: 344
Last year: 696

Number posted to polytechnics

This year: 20,640
Last year: 19,836

Number posted to ITE

This year: 2,408
Last year: 2,784

NOTE: The figures are calculated based on rounded-off percentages provided by the Ministry of Education and may not be exact numbers.