INFORMATION NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT STUDY IN SINGAPORE’S PUBLIC SSCHOOLS

Different from various developed country countries in the world such as the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand,… public school systems in Singapore are much more thriving than private school systems with the government emphasizes on investing in not only economy but also teacher training. In steading using of common training, the Singapore education system pays much attention to build up good conditions of education. In addition, outstanding students of the whole grade are selected to study in a novel education tailored for the excellent annually. The curriculum is also oriented so that each child can develop according to his or her individual capacity, but not every subject is studied.

Studying in Singapore public system for international students is not as easy as many people think. Except for kindergarten or first grade without complicated exams, students from other countries, from elementary school - college - university, are required to take entrance exams such as AEIS, S- AEIS, O level, A level.

So what do children need to prepare to study in the Singapore public system? Here is some information summarized by Vietsing24h.

1. Age 
   - Primary school 
   Students can only enter the public elementary system from grade 2 through the AEIS or S-AEIS exam. When taking the exam to enter grade 2, students must be from 7 to 12 years old (equivalent to grades 2 to 6).

Acceptable ages are:  

(Students must not be more than 02 years old compared to the approved age for registration level)

- Secondary 
If students want to study secondary school curriculum, most students will have to take the exam one year behind in comparison to Vietnam

Singapore Education sorts students’ capacity out 3 levels, based on The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE): 
  + The Intergrated Program (IP): for very-good students who do not need to pass O level, but skip to A level.

  + Express Program: for good students who have for 4 years to study O level - this is the sole program that admits self-supporting international students through AEIS/ S-AEIS annually.

  + Normal A and T Program: for average students who have 4 or 5 years to get N level or O level certificate.

The Normal Program of Secondary 2 is equivalent with The Express program of Secondary 1.

In fact, the school curriculum in Vietnam is quite equivalent to the Singapore’s Normal Program. This is the reason that Vietnamese students dropping down 1 academic year has not been strange.

Students must be between the ages of 12 and 16+. As with the primary school system, to be admitted to the secondary school systems in Singapore students must also pass the AEIS or S-AEIS exam of the Singapore Ministry of Education. Acceptable ages are:

(Students must not be more than 02 years old compared to the approved age for registration level)

(Source: moe.gov.sg)

2. Academic Conditions

All students sent to Vietsing24h are obliged to take a AEIS test which is used to assess students’ capacity in Maths and English. Because the program is taught in English, it is imperative to be good and excellent at English. For students who do not meet these conditions, it will take time to review and prepare.

Besides, Maths is completely different from Maths in Vietnam. Singapore Maths focuses on building basic math skills, instead of paying attention to content, allowing students to focus on deeper concepts, using  “three-step" learning approach that is specific, visual and abstract. Students need to master concepts, as opposed to memorizing rules and formulas.

Are school profile important?

Students taking AEIS / S-AEIS exams are not affected by their school profile, Vietsing24h students have friends Andy PNT who finished grade 5 in Vietnam and did not know English to prepare for exams and passed secondary 1 as grade 7.

Exam preparation at Vietsing24H:

All candidates coming to vietsing24h will take an entrance test to check their level of English and Math in English. From this test a personal curriculum for each student will be developed. This program will be continuously adjusted during the teaching process depending on the learning ability of the students.

At Vietsing24h, we do not hire outside teachers, we train each student, design a study program for each student. This is the guideline of the educational method and the key to the success of VS24.

The exam preparation time depends on students’ English level at the time of starting the exam preparation. Math in English can be learned very quickly but English takes a long time to accumulate vocabulary.

#vietsing24h has had a lot of students who have studied for 1-3 months even though they have never studied math in English, but there are also cases where it took 2 years and jumped 2 years apart like Andy PNT mentioned above. The difference is made by the level of English at the starting line and the sense of learning as well as the determination of each student.

3. Personality

Besides academic level, personality is one of the points that makes the difference, it is also known as the uniqueness of each person. Personality will determine whether your child will make it through the independent life away from home or will have a mental crisis? Therefore, your children needs to be prepared the ability to be independent in living and studying. The determination of both children and parents, perseverance, and specially efforts during the review period will be the keys to success. If you do not prepare well, studying abroad can be extremely difficult and pull your child back from his friends.

Personality is also an important basis for considering career orientation. At Vietsing24H, each child has a personality, each child is different, there are several things that need to be discovered and developed. But there are personalities that need to be in the right direction. Taking advantage of being educators having great chance to approach children every single day, we always follow up their growing steps to find out their strengths. Currently, we nonstop figure out demands of society to give them advice in career path.  

Living with children every day enables us – educators working in Vietsing24h to have a deeper understanding of our children. Thanks to this, we can support them through teenage cris. Futhermore, we also place an emphasis on teaching them how to build up good behaviour towards family and society. Besides, our students are encouraged to participate in volunteer work organized in Vietnam, Singapore or even in other countries. Just like that, we altogether are moving forward step-by-step.

4. Financial conditions

Financial conditions to apply for a Singapore student visa are not too strict. Family ensures parents' income from 3,000 SGD/month/person, saving 1 billion VND or more. However, the cost of studying and living in Singapore are not cheap, so parents need to keep this in mind when sending their children to study in Singapore. 
Public school expenses include:

- Tuition fee: $10,080/year

- Guarantee: $1,200/year

- Accommodation: $18,000/year

- Lunch, transportation, pocket money: $2,400/year

Total regular expenses for a year in Singapore: $31,600 SGD (about 550 million VND)

In addition, if students need to prepare for the exam to enter the public school, the cost will be added about $2,000 - $3,000/month.

Why should your children enroll in a public school in Singapore?

- Highly evaluated quality of education

Singapore's public school systems are well-known for their quality of teaching and learning, reflected in the outstanding achievements of Singaporean students in international competitions. Singapore is also a country with many top universities in the world. For example, according to QS World University Ranking 2021: National University of Singapore (NUS) is in the top 10 most prestigious universities around the world and surpassed Tsinghua University of China to become the top university in Asia. Or Nanyang Technological University (NTU) ranked 13th in the world and 3rd in Asia, Singapore Management University (SMU) ranked 41st worldwide for business and management training. In addition to 3 famous national universities, Singapore also attracts the attention of leading universities in the world. Among them are famous schools such as the French university: INSEAD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Graduate School of Business from the University of Chicago… Degrees in Singapore are recognized worldwide. Therefore, after studying in Singapore, students can be transferred to higher education levels in many countries such as the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia ... or stay and work with a starting salary of 3,400 SGD or more and the opportunity to settle down after 02 years.

- Convenient travel to Vietnam

Singapore is just more than 3 hours flight from Hanoi, with Ho Chi Minh City is more than 2 hours. Students can easily visit their home when they have the opportunity. Parents can also easily visit their children because of cheap travel costs, easy procedures, and no visa required. Especially thanks to the very priority entry policy for Vietnam during the epidemic season, students from Vietsing24H can still come home to celebrate Tet and enjoy their vacation in Vietnam.

- A safe and clean living environment, high sense of law compliance

Singapore is being known as the greenest -the cleanest – the most beautiful and the safest country in the world (especially with extremely low drug crime). People here respect the law, even the smallest violation will face very high fines. Therefore, when studying in Singapore, students will not have to worry about insecurity affecting their mental health and learning.

-  Traveling is safe and convenient because of the developed public transport system

Singapore has an extremely convenient public transportation system, including buses, MRT, etc. Students can travel conveniently and quickly. Especially for students, students are supported by the Government 40-50% of travel expenses when using public transport.

(Selfie  before boarding the plane to Vietnam for Tet holiday 2021 )

(Sophie entered Riverside Secondary School)

(Tony and Jack's first day at Canberra Secondary School)

(Vietsing24H's Volunteer activities)

(Vietsing24H's Volunteer activities)

(Riverside Secondary School)

(N/O level exam at Northbrooks Secondary - Northbrooks Secondary School facebook source)