Singapore Secondary school students to have one common national exam period from 2027

This year’s Secondary 1 students will be the first to sit their national examinations under one common timetable in 2027.

They will sit the new Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examinations in 2027 instead of O- and N-level examinations, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on March 1 in Parliament.

This comes after the removal of streaming into Normal and Express in secondary schools in 2024, and the implementation of full subject-based banding, where students take subjects at varying levels according to their strengths and interests.

With the change, students will have one written exam sitting for their mother tongue language (MTL) subject and will not be able to retake the exam, said Mr Chan during the debate on his ministry’s budget.

Currently, students are able to choose from two exam sittings for MTL, one in the middle of the year, usually in the first week of the June holidays, and the other during the O-level written exam period, usually in November.

“I understand that some may be concerned that they will have one less chance to improve their MTL grades,” said Mr Chan.

“But we need to strike a careful balance between striving for excellence, chasing the last mark, and allowing our students to learn at a better pace.”