ITE fast track is chosen path for 367 N-level students
By Ho Ai Li 
GREAT LEAP FORWARD: Stephanie Tay, 17, is one of the Sec 4 Normal (Academic) students who chose the ITE route despite scoring a 12-point aggregate in her N levels. -- ST PHOTO: EDWIN KOO
WHO'S afraid of going to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE)?
Certainly not the 367 Normal (Academic) stream students who are the first to take the through-train programme from Sec 4 to a higher-level ITE course.
Until earlier this year, these courses were open only to those with O-level qualifications.
Like most of the fast-track students, Stephanie Tay, 17, could have gone on to Secondary 5 to take the O levels but went to the ITE instead.
'At the ITE, what they teach is more hands-on compared to Sec 5, which is more academic,' said the Greenview Secondary student.
Now taking a Higher National ITE Certificate (Higher Nitec) course in Biotechnology, she hopes to study business at a polytechnic in the future.
Likewise, Muhammad Luqman Abdul Halim, 16, went for Mechanical Engineering at the ITE.
He said: 'I think it's safer. If I do badly for the O levels, I will still end up in Higher Nitec.'
His decision was supported by his parents, he said, although his teachers at Dunman Secondary had encouraged him to attempt the O levels.
Now he is gunning to do aeronautical engineering at a polytechnic after he completes the two-year Higher Nitec course.
About 30 per cent of Higher Nitec students further their studies at polytechnics, said an ITE spokesman.
Those who ace their studies can also enter the second year of some polytechnic courses, keeping them on par with their Sec 5 peers who take the O-level-to-poly route.
Some schools have advised Sec 5 students to go to the ITE, but parents were upset as they preferred their children to take the O-level route.
It is currently harder to get a ticket for the through-train than it is to get promoted to Sec 5.
Some 72.5 per cent of the 11,653 Sec 4N(A) students who took the N levels last year were eligible for Sec 5, but only about half met the cut-off for direct entry to a Higher Nitec course.
Those students opting for the direct entry route have been attending a 10-week course since the start of January to prepare them for life at the ITE.
For one of them, Nurul Aisyah Supangat, 17, going to the ITE means she can focus on what she is interested in.
'If I go to Sec 5, they have to teach us all the subjects. But at the ITE, they only teach the subjects relevant to our courses,' she said.
For former Jurong Secondary student Yeo Shumin, 17, the ITE fast track is a boon as he wants to finish his studies quickly and start his own food or service business.
Shumin, who has a younger sister, convinced his teacher mum and contractor dad that he was sure of what he wanted.
'I'm happy with my decision,' he said.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Sto...ry_197875.html 
ITE fast track is chosen path for 367 N-level students 
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