October 17, 2002	Thursday	Sha'aban 10, 1423

SINGAPORE, Oct 16: The A-level education system will undergo its first major revamp in 30 years to give students a broader education and give greater focus to thinking and communication skills.

Students will be required to offer subjects in both the arts /humanities and mathematics and science, besides general paper, project work and mother tongue.

Breadth will also be achieved through the introduction of new inter-disciplinary subjects such as biochemistry, biophysics and history of science.

While teaching methods have already changed to let junior college (JC) students spend more time learning and finding answers for themselves, the revised curriculum will give greater emphasis to these skills.

Project work, which was introduced in JCs in 2000 and requires students to think across disciplines, will be given the same standing as general paper (GP).

A new elective, called knowledge and inquiry, can be taken in lieu of GP. It will develop the reasoning and analytical abilities of students at a higher level and require them to read widely from different disciplines.

Under the revised system, students will study a minimum of seven subjects, two more than now, including a subject outside their area of specialization. But the 16-member committee, which came up with these changes, took pains to point out that more subjects will not mean a heavier workload.

Subjects will be “sized down” by as much as 20 per cent or 60 hours to ensure that students do not spend more time in school.

Senior Minister of State for Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who headed the committee, said that although the A levels had served Singapore well, students had become too specialized in their studies.—The Straits Times/Asia News Network