zaobao's online report is a day behind and straits times' report is just pathetic so you read it here first:

• from jc to 4 year school: beginning 2004 nj will become a 4 year school accepting a small number of students (about 125), but continuing to accept jc1 students. nj will complete its transformation to a 4 year program by 2009, last batch of jc1s will be accepted in 2007, after which only 3rd year students will be accepted. secondary two students from any school may apply to enter the four year prepatory program at nj. they will accept 500 students a year at that time, and students will sit the A levels in the final year.

• secondary school to 6 year program: acs is going to remain at its current size but become a 6 year school, culminating in IB in the sixth year. they'll take in about 420 students and of those,150-250 students will be selected in 2nd year for continuation to the final 4 years of the 6 year program. an addition 100 students will be admitted in the 5th year, but they will not consider taking in girls at the 5th year.

• combined secondary and jc program: ri rgs and rjc will not be merging and will remain three separate institutions, but with integrated curriculum (which is probably, in part at least, because of old boys resistance to girls in ri. huh.) and a six year program over 2 different campuses. entry to ri and rgs are will mean a continuation to rj. they will continue to offer A levels, not the IB. neither secondary school will no have a gep per se, but ri explains that it's like extending gep to the whole school. new students will be accepted at sec 1, 3, and j1 levels, except of course these terms will be anachronistic when the time comes. the three schools are setting up an international advisory board for consultation and assessment of the independent raffles education system.

• chinese high and hwachong, as far as i can see, are going on as much as ever before, seeing the two schools already share a campus, and most chinese high students continue to hwachong anyway! like the raffles schools they will take the usual number of boys in the first year, and admit additionally 450 students (girls as well) in the 5th year to make up the numbers in the biggest change will be the combined and accelerated chinese curriculum (including film studies and songwriting) aimed at cultivating a new chinese elite (erm) they will actually teach chinese history and geography in chinese. this is astounding and almost anti-national policy or at least since the abolishment of nanyang u and the national integration of schools i should think the chinese community will be very pleased. they will also continue to offer A levels instead of IB.

i wonder if anyone realises what this means for girls. if acs remains an all-boys school, rgs will be the sole girls' school. although hwachong will accept girls at the jc level, assuming we're talking 50-50, or even slightly more than that, we're still looking at 3:1 boys:girls. and although nj's program is co-ed, (so we're talking 50-50 again) it depends entirely on 3rd year transfers. it's highly unlikely that anyone in the other four schools will transfer, so any opportunities of beginning a 6 year program for a girl has to lie with rgs, and rgs is only one school of 4 - again 3:1. why? is there any research to indicate that intelligent boys outnumber girls by that ratio?! i know the rationale for having 2 gifted schools for boys and just one for girls was based on research showing that that 2:1 is the worldwide distribution of very bright boys to girls, but 3:1? you can't mean to say that boys been getting smarter over the years and girls stupider. how can it be acceptable that for every 100 students at the 4 top schools only 25 of them are girls by decree of quota?!

okay i shall turn militant feminist rapidly.