The Provisional Admission Exercise (PAE), colloquially known as the first three months among Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

s, refers to the interim exercise/period in which graduating Secondary 4 students in Singapore could choose to join a junior college

Junior college

The term junior college refers to different educational institutions in different countries.-India:In India, most states provide schooling through 12th grade...

 or centralised institute for Term 1 in the following academic year, before the official release of the GCE 'O' level results

General Certificate of Education

The General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...

. Students used the score of their respective secondary schools' internal preliminary examinations to apply under the programme.

Programme

Most pre-university centres' orientation

Student orientation

Student orientation or new student orientation, is a period of time at the beginning of the academic year at a university or other tertiary institution during which a variety of events are held to orient and welcome new students. The name of the period varies by country...

 programmes during the PAE were longer as compared to those held at the start of the actual pre-university academic year. Students usually made use of this period of time to socialise and enjoy themselves; their workload was greatly reduced, and cases of skipping classes

Truancy

Truancy is any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. The term typically describes absences caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate "excused" absences, such as ones related to medical conditions...

 were common. This is in stark contrast to the pressure-cooker stress

Stress (medicine)

Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...

 that students usually undergo during a normal school term. Junior colleges in Singapore also made use of this period to organise many activities, with fun

Fun

Fun is the enjoyment of pleasure and, according to Johan Huizinga, "an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a glance right down to the animal level." Fun may be encountered in many human activities during work, social functions, recreation and play, and even seemingly...

 as an emphasis, in order to entice students to stay in their respective institutions after the PAE. This is particularly true if the junior college is not prominent for its academic-orientated performance.
During the PAE, students were permitted to wear uniform

School uniform

A school uniform is an outfit—a set of standardized clothes—worn primarily for an educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries . When used, they form the basis of a school's dress code.Traditionally school uniforms have been largely subdued and...

s of their secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

s instead of those of the pre-university centre. The phenomenon of gate-crashing

Gate-crashing

Gate-crashing, gatecrashing or party crashing is the act of attending an invite-only event without invitationThe person doing the gate-crashing is known as a gate-crasher...

, or colloquially called crashing, arose from this loophole; in an act amounting to trespassing, students not affiliated to a school enter without prior consent from the school administration. Some students gatecrashed to enjoy the prestige of crashing a "good" pre-university centre; others did so to join their former schoolmates. It was also common to see students from different secondary schools exchanging their school uniforms with those from schools considered more recognised, mostly for the fun of it or in some cases, to escape the "neighbourhood school" stigma presented by their uniforms.

Critics claim that some secondary schools give an unfair advantage over their students, by either inflating grades

Grade inflation

Grade inflation is the tendency of academic grades for work of comparable quality to increase over time.It is frequently discussed in relation to U.S. education, and to GCSEs and A levels in England and Wales...

 for the internal preliminary examinations or making them easier. Students who choose to remain in the JCs after the PAE are awarded bonus 'loyalty

Loyalty

Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause There are many aspects to...

' scores, which cuts off 2 points in their GCE 'O' Level grade, giving them a greater chance of remaining in the pre-university centre. School administrations struggled to cope with the admission procedures of two student batches in an academic year. It is also argued that in many cases, lessons had to be retaught as many students did not remain in the same pre-university centre after the PAE because some left for other JCs or polytechnics.

End of PAE

The Ministry of Education

Ministry of Education (Singapore)

The Ministry Of Education is a ministry of the Government of Singapore that directs the formulation and implementation of policies related to education in Singapore.-Statutory boards:...

 had originally announced the consolidation of a single admission batch for pre-university centres from 2006 onwards, but due to administrative problems, the abolishment was delayed till 2009, making 2008 the last year with PAE. This coincides with the arrangement between SEAB and UCLES

UCLES

University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate is a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge and is a not-for-profit organisation...

to cut short the marking period of papers.

External links

• Ministry of Education press release: Single Intake for Junior Colleges and Millennia Institute from 2009