MOE's Niche Programmes: Developing excellence

VIA the Niche Programme, the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) provides funding for mainstream secondary schools with good talent development programmes and proven track records of achievements in their identified area of excellence or niches.

These schools can admit up to 5% of their Secondary One intake by participating in the Direct School Admissions exercise.

Kickstarting excellence over 3 years

A school that seeks such funding is evaluated on the strength of the niche, and the sustainability, educational value and reach of the programme. Up to $150,000 will be provided for the schools to build up one to two niches over three years.

In addition, a further grant of $50,000 per niche per year will also be given for schools to sustain and maintain their niches if their status are renewed after 3 years.

For the 2005-08 period, the MOE website provides the following list of secondary schools that obtained niche status in the identified areas of excellence.

Comments (1)

Bryan Frederick: MOE's Niche Programmes: Developing excellence

I find it interesting that only one schools offers DSA in an area that overlaps with the Singapore Sports School. This is Montfort which offers DSA for Badmington. I agree not all of the funding needs to be in Sports but I would have thought that the sports being coached in the Sports School would have received priority in the Secondary Schools so the money is not spread to thin across too many sports. How can a country be competitive in a sport if only one school takes it seriously. From an alternative point of view, if the Government feels that some sports deserve funding in the schools, say Hockey, Rugby or Dance as an example, then they should be offered in the Sports School. I do not understand the logic of this? Surely to excel in sports Singapore must choose a few to focus on at first and put the money there. Once it master those sports move on to the next. My thoughts anyway

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May 10