Candidates Placed On Quarantine Order To Be Allowed To Sit For National Examinations

NAME AND CONSTITUENCY OF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim, Sengkang GRC

QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Education whether students taking national exams such as the PSLE and "O/N/A" levels and who are served a Quarantine Order or Stay-Home Notice will be permitted to undertake their exams in a centralised, dedicated quarantine facility instead of being prohibited from taking the exams altogether.

RESPONSE
1. The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) have announced the updated arrangements on 26 September 2021 for those who may be affected by COVID-19 for the coming national examinations. These include special arrangements to allow students to take their national year-end examinations while on Quarantine Order (QO), Leave of Absence or Approved Absence in a safe manner, starting from the PSLE which began on 30 September 2021, and for GCE N(A)/N(T), O and A level examinations thereafter.

2. Students on QO will be allowed to sit for national written examinations under stringent conditions including a rigorous testing regime and safe management measures. These includes a negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) entry swab at the beginning of the QO, and students completing a self-swab with Antigen Rapid Tests (ART) kits at home and test Ag- within 24 hours before each of their examination papers. Safe Management Measures and other precautions are also put in place at the examination venues to ensure the safe conduct of the national examinations.

3. In the immediate period before the national examinations, travelling should be avoided. In addition, Stay-Home Notice (SHN) is mandatory for persons after returning from overseas trips. SEAB will, however, make an exception if a student needs to travel for compassionate reasons (e.g. demise of close relatives). For these candidates on SHN, SEAB will apply similar arrangements as that for candidates on QO to allow them to sit for their national written examinations.