SEAB@20: Pride in Work
As SEAB celebrates its 20th anniversary, this series of articles highlights the board’s key milestones in 2024. They reinforce SEAB’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and service excellence. Read on to find out more.
SEAB Building Achieves Remarkable Sustainability Milestone
SEAB Building has achieved a recertification as a Green Mark Platinum (Super Low Energy) Building by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) in August 2024. The recertification is valid until August 2027. Led by the Office and Estate Management Department, the recertification reflects SEAB’s commitment to creating a sustainable future.
Aerial view of our building at Jalan Bukit Ho Swee
SEAB Building features a passive architectural design where the orientation of the external and internal facades was deliberately designed to minimise heat retention, keeping the building cool. The building also features a biophilic design, with extensive use of greenery throughout the building, externally and internally. These have created an overall green plot ratio of 8.46 (i.e. the total leaf area from all plants is about 8.46 times the site area) for the development. The greenery has also helped to reduce the heat effect and cool the building further.
SEAB has also made significant improvements in the building’s energy and water efficiency. Compared to 2021, energy and water use in 2024 were lowered by 3.8% and 22.4% respectively, despite an increase in footfall in SEAB. The features include:
a. A high efficiency water-cooled central cooling system. The chiller plant and cooling towers are located at the rooftop level to minimise condenser pressure loss and achieve optimal chiller plant efficiency.
b. Instruments to recycle condensate water from the air-conditioning system to supplement the water used in the central cooling system, and rainwater to irrigate the green spaces.
c. Solar panels installed on the rooftop to offset electricity consumption.
Solar panels installed on the roof of SEAB Building.
Green spaces watered by the harvested rainwater.
Collaborative efforts across our organisation have also further enhanced our sustainability initiatives to promote environmental consciousness and reduce the use of single-use items and waste. Our staff are adopting more eco-friendly practices, such as using reusable utensils and bringing their own water bottles to meetings and events. They have also been encouraging visitors, including examination personnel to do the same. We have also piloted a hybrid approach to food catering for workshops and training sessions, comprising a mixed provision of catered food and snack packs.
High-Tech Solution in Examination Script Processing
Each year, SEAB scans and marks the national examination scripts of candidates. The scripts must be processed prior to scanning and accounted for. SEAB leverages technology to achieve an efficient operation and one such initiative is the development of the Automated Booklet Accounting and Slitting Machine (ABSM), a collaboration with Singapore Polytechnic (SP). Piloted in June 2024 for locally marked scripts, the ABSM has demonstrated success in automated accounting of approximately 180,000 GCE-Level and PSLE scripts.
This success was the result of continuous design work and enhancements to the processes and machine since 2023. Key parts such as the machine software, safety functionalities and the feeding module, have undergone several reviews to increase the machine's throughput and to reduce manual efforts in operations.
What does the ABSM do?
The ABSM handles a daily capacity of 8,000 to 10,000 scripts, with the following key features:
a. Accurately account scripts using candidate QR or bar codes;
b. Detect additional booklets used by candidates using thickness sensing; and
c. Precision cutting of the booklets using a high-quality roller cutter to allow scanning.
ABSM will be further enhanced to meet SEAB’s total script volume and is expected to reap the following benefits:
a. An 80% reduction in manual efforts, translating to 860 man-days saved; and
b. A potential annual cost avoidance of about $96,000 manpower costs.
Partial view of the Automated Booklet Accounting and Slitting Machine
The ABSM was a collaborative effort between SEAB’s Exam Operations Division and Singapore Polytechnic.
Celebrating Service Excellence: SEAB Shines at the Digital Services Awards 2024!
SEAB has made notable progress in the 2024 Digital Services Awards (DSA), an event recognising excellence in public digital services. Launched in 2021, the DSA is organised by GovTech with support from the Smart Nation Group.
The DSA ceremony, held at the Lifelong Learning Institute
This year, SEAB's digital services – SEAB’s Corporate Website, Candidates Portal, and Exam Personnel Portal - received two awards: Best Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Best Functionality. Winners of these awards are based on scores generated by Whole of Government Application Analytics (WOGAA), a GovTech tool that is developed to monitor the performance of government websites and digital services.
SEAB’s achievements were acknowledged at the DSA ceremony on 28 November 2024, with Senior Director (SD), Ms Selena Yeo, representing SEAB to receive the two awards.
Ms Selena Yeo, Senior Director, Corporate Cluster, receiving the Best SEO and Best Functionality awards from Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information & Health, and Minister-in-Charge of GovTech.
SEAB is honoured to receive the Best SEO and Best Functionality awards
The awards reflect the ongoing efforts in leveraging technology to serve SEAB’s customers better. They are also a testament to the dedication and hard work put in by the project teams from SEAB’s Corporate Cluster and Exam Operations Division, with strong support rendered by the Ministry of Education’s Information Technology Division.
Project team members from SEAB’s Corporate Cluster and Exam Operations Division, and members of MOE’s Information Technology Division
