Ministry of Education Review language component of poly admission criteria
The O-level examination results were released early last month, and I believe that an aspect of the admissions criteria to polytechnics should be reviewed.

To enrol in a junior college (JC) or Millennia Institute (MI), a student can use English language or higher mother tongue under the language component of the aggregate computation.

For polytechnic admission, however, students can use only English language for tabulation under the language component.

I understand that higher mother tongue can still be tabulated under the "two relevant subjects" or "two best subjects" components for polytechnic admission. But why can't it be considered for tabulation under the language component? I do not see why there should be different standards between JCs/MI and polytechnics.

The option to use higher mother tongue is important for students who may fare better in their higher mother tongue than English and would like to consider it for aggregate tabulation, especially those intending to enrol in a polytechnic.

One may argue that students no longer study their mother tongue languages in polytechnic (unless they are doing courses such as Chinese media and communications), but the same can be said for JC students.

JC students who score D7 or better for their O-level higher mother tongue are exempted from doing mother tongue in JC.

So unless they decide to read subjects such as Chinese literature, those JC students effectively do not touch their mother tongue languages in their curriculum as well.

The same level of respect should be given to mother tongue languages regardless of the tertiary institution one enrols in. Perhaps with the Committee of Supply debates commencing soon in Parliament, it is timely for the Ministry of Education to review this outdated policy.

Sean Lim Wei Xin

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/review-language-component-of-poly-admission-criteria

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