Special and express courses will be merged into the "express" stream, starting with next year's Secondary One students in Singapore, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced today.

This is because of the diminishing differences between the two courses, following the relaxation of the eligibility criteria for students who opt for higher mother tongue language.

The merger will not affect the status of Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, which the Ministry says continue to play an important role in preserving the best traditions of Chinese medium schools and nurturing able students to study both Chinese and English at first language level.

This means that students who are in the top 30 per cent of the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) and pass Higher Chinese Language will continue to be eligible for bonus points for admission to SAP schools.

On the merger of the Special and Express courses, an MOE statement said this is "to better reflect the reality in schools where there is no longer a significant distinction between the Special and Express courses, and to give schools greater flexibility to organise their classes."

The Special course was first introduced in 1979 to demarcate a distinct course taken by students who were in the top 10 per cent of the PSLE cohort, and who took HCL in the SAP schools.

It has evolved and since 1986, it no longer refers to the course offered by students in the SAP schools, said the ministry.

In 1986, the course was expanded to include students in the top 10 per cent of the PSLE cohort who offer Higher Chinese, Higher Malay or Higher Tamil (HMTL) in secondary schools, regardless of whether they are in SAP schools.

Today, 51 per cent of Special course students are in SAP schools, while 49 per cent are in non-SAP schools.

The Ministry noted that in recent years, the differences between the Special and Express courses have become even smaller.

"This is due to the progressive changes to the eligibility criteria for students to offer HMTL at 'O' levels, to allow more students to offer HMTL if they have the ability and interest to do so," said MOE.

Before 1995, only students in the top per cent of the PSLE cohort could offer HMTL in secondary schools. In 1995, students in the top 11-20 per cent were allowed to do HMTL, if they obtained an A* in mother tongue language or a distinction in HMTL, and at least an A in English language.

In 1999, the rule was further reviewed to allow students in the top 30 per cent of the PSLE cohort to offer HMTL at secondary level, if they have an A* in mother tongue or distinction in HMTL, and at least an A in English language.

From 2004, the requirement to have at least an A in English language was removed and schools were also given the flexibility to allow students who do not meet the formal criteria to offer HMTL.

"Therefore, since 1995, an increasing number of students from the Express course has been offering HMTL," said MOE.

The number of Secondary 1 Express course students offering HMTL increased from 862 in 1995 to 4,466 in 2007. For this year's Secondary 1 cohort, there are 4,466 Express course students and 4,410 Special course students.

In addition, some schools have placed students from both courses in the same classes.

"Thus, there is now little distinction between Special and Express students in secondary schools," said MOE.