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The Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise for admission to secondary schools and junior colleges (JCs) in 2026 will open for application from 7 May 2025. Separately, applications for early admission to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics based on course-specific aptitude and interests will start from 20 May and 2 June 2025 respectively.

DSA Exercise

2. DSA provides a pathway for students to gain admission to secondary schools or JCs based on their interests, aptitude, and potential, beyond their performance at the national examinations. Upon admission, students can further develop their talent in their secondary schools or JCs. Secondary schools and JCs can take up to 20% of their non-Integrated Programme Secondary 1 (S1) / Junior College 1 intake via the DSA Exercise.

DSA-Sec Application

3. Students and parents may submit applications for DSA-Sec via the MOE DSA-Sec website¹ from 7 May 2025, 11am to 3 June 2025, 3pm. Applicants only need to fill in one online form to apply to multiple schools and talent areas. Each applicant can indicate up to three choices in the application form. For each choice, applicants will need to choose a secondary school and a talent area offered by that school. Applicants can indicate a different talent area for each of his/her three choices, and a maximum of two choices may be used for the same school.

4. Application through the portal is free-of-charge and requires one parent's Singpass to login, for authentication purposes. Parents who do not have Singpass access can approach their child's primary school for assistance.

DSA-JC Application

5. Students applying for DSA-JC are encouraged to check the MOE DSA-JC website² for important dates and timelines, and to find out how the exercise will be conducted. Interested students should visit the respective JCs' websites for details as application periods, procedures and selection criteria may differ for different JCs.

DSA Selection

6. Students applying for DSA will be considered by the respective schools that they have applied for. While schools have the autonomy to determine their own DSA selection and assessment criteria, they will adopt a holistic approach, by considering students' performance and potential in the talent area, as well as their personal qualities.

7. Schools will also uphold the DSA selection principles of transparency, objectivity, talent-specificity, inclusiveness and student-centricity. As part of MOE's ongoing efforts to refine the DSA selection process, schools will administer Conflict of Interest (COI) declarations for coaches and instructors using a standardised declaration form and follow MOE's guidelines on recusal in the event of potential COI. These will ensure greater clarity and consistency across schools in managing COI.

DSA Commitment

8. Students will be directly informed of the outcome of their DSA application by the respective schools. If a DSA offer is made, they have up until the indicated deadline to decide whether to accept the offer, which will be before the release of the national examination results. Students participating in the DSA-Sec or DSA-JC Exercise are still required to take the PSLE or GCE O-Level examination respectively.

9. A student who takes up a DSA-Sec confirmed offer is guaranteed a place in that secondary school, provided that his/her PSLE result meets the minimum requirement for a Posting Group that the school admits students from³. Students seeking entry to the Integrated Programme track must meet the minimum requirement for Posting Group 3. Similarly, for a student who takes up a DSA-JC offer, his/her GCE O-Level result must meet the eligibility criteria⁴ for admission to JC.

10. In accepting an offer of admission through the DSA Exercise, students are expressing a commitment to study in that school, and to develop their talent in their chosen area. Hence students who are successfully admitted to a school via DSA-Sec or DSA-JC will not be eligible to participate in the S1 Posting Exercise or Joint Admissions Exercise. They will also not be allowed to transfer to another school after obtaining their PSLE or GCE O-Level results.

11. Students should carefully consider their DSA applications, based on their aptitudes and strengths, as well as the programmes available in different schools.

Early Admissions Exercise (EAE)

12. EAE provides a pathway for final-year ITE (Nitec and Higher Nitec), N-Level and O-Level students, as well as working adults (with at least two years of relevant work experience), to apply for and receive conditional offers for admission to ITE and the polytechnics. Beyond academic grades, EAE applicants are considered based on their aptitude and interest in a specific course, as well as relevant work experience (in the case of working adult applicants). Applicants may be required to submit portfolios, undergo interviews and take aptitude tests as part of the selection process.

ITE EAE Application

13. Graduating N- and O-Level students can apply for early admission to Higher Nitec courses through the ITE EAE, based on their course-specific aptitudes and interest.

14. Applications will open from 20 to 26 May 2025. Successful applicants under the ITE EAE will be given conditional offers before receiving their final examination results. For their conditional offer to be confirmed, they must meet the Minimum Entry Requirements (MERs) of the offered course.

15. More information on the application procedure, entry requirements, important dates for the interviews, acceptance and confirmation of offer and the MERs for the respective Higher Nitec courses can be found at .

16. Students are expected to commit to their chosen course under the ITE EAE. Students who accept a place via the ITE EAE will not be eligible to participate in all other ITE admission exercises.

Polytechnic EAE Application

17. Graduating O-Level, final-year ITE (Nitec and Higher Nitec) students and adults with two or more years of relevant work experience can apply for early admission into courses at the five polytechnics through the Polytechnic EAE, based on their course-specific aptitudes and interest, apart from academic grades.

18. Applications will open from 12 to 18 June 2025 for final-year ITE students, and from 26 June to 2 July 2025 for O-Level students. More information on the application procedure, entry requirements and important dates for the interviews, acceptance and confirmation of offer can be found at .

19. Successful applicants under the Polytechnic EAE will be given conditional offers before receiving the final examination results. For the conditional offer to be confirmed, they must meet the MERs for the offered course. The MERs for the respective diploma courses can be found on the polytechnics' websites.

20. Students are expected to commit to their chosen polytechnic and course under the Polytechnic EAE. Students who accept an offer via the Polytechnic EAE and have their place confirmed will not be eligible to participate in all other polytechnic admission exercises. They will also not be able to transfer to another course within or between the polytechnics.

Polytechnic and ITE EAE Application for Working Adults

21. Working adults with at least two years of relevant work experience can apply to the polytechnics and ITE via the Polytechnic and ITE EAE respectively. This applies to Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents only.

22. Interested working adults will need to submit employment records together with their application, as well as employer recommendations where available. The polytechnics and ITE will holistically assess applicants' work experience to determine the relevance of the competencies and skills gained over the course of their work to their course of interest. Applicants who are found suitable, but whose past academic grades do not meet the MERs, will be given the opportunity to demonstrate that they have acquired the required competencies for their chosen course through supplementary assessments.

23. Applications for working adults will open from 20 to 26 May 2025 for ITE EAE and 2 June to 29 June 2025 for Polytechnic EAE. More information can be found at and .

Further Information

24. Students interested in the ITE EAE or Polytechnic EAE should visit the websites of the Institutes of Higher Learning for more details, before the start of the respective exercises. More information on the ITE EAE and Polytechnic EAE is also available on /post-secondary/admissions/ite-eae and /post-secondary/admissions/poly-eae, respectively.

Footnotes

1. The MOE DSA-Sec website can be accessed at: /dsa-sec.
2. The MOE DSA-JC website can be accessed at: /dsa-jc.
3. With the implementation of Full Subject-Based Banding from the 2024 S1 cohort, MOE will post students to secondary school through three Posting Groups – Posting Group 1, 2, and 3. For more information on Posting Groups, please refer to /microsites/psle-fsbb/full-subject-based-banding/faq.html#posting-groups.
4. Please refer to /jc-admission-eligibility for more information.