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 from Sec 4 N(A) to a higher-level ITE course.

Previously, the Higher National ITE Certificate (Higher Nitec) courses are open only to those with O levels.

Like most of the fast-track students, Stephanie Tay, 17, who scored 12 points for English, maths and her best three subjects, could have gone on to Secondary 5 to take O levels, but went to 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, whose father is a manager and mother a homemaker.

Now taking a Higher Nitec course in Biotechnolgy, she hopes to study business at the polytechnic in future. Likewise, Muhammad Luqman Abdul Halim, 16, who had a score of eight points, went for Mechanical Engineering at the ITE.

'I think it's safer. If I do badly for the O levels, I will still end up in Higher Nitec,' said the older of two children, whose father is a mechanic and mother a homemaker.

His decision was supported by his parents, he said, although his teachers at Dunman Secondary had encouraged him to attempt the O levels.

He plans to study Aeronautical Engineering at a polytechnic after he completes the two-year Higher Nitec course.

About 30 per cent of Higher Nitec students go on to polytechnics, said an ITE spokesman.

Those who ace their studies can also enter the second year of some polytechnic courses, putting them on par with Sec 5 peers who take the O-level to poly route.

Some schools had advised students to take up the new direct entry scheme to ITE, but parents were upset as they preferred their children take the O-level route.

It is currently harder to get a ticket for the through train than to get promoted to Sec 5.

Some 72.5 per cent of 11,653 Sec 4N(A) students who took the N levels last year are eligible for Sec 5, but only about half meet the cut-off for direct entry to a Higher Nitec course.

The students opting for the direct entry route have been attending a 10-week course to prepare them for life at the ITE since the start of January.

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