How can I continue to remain in Singapore to complete my O-Levels?

[XP Mai]

O-Level is of paramount importance for me because it is the only way for me to re-join mainstream schooling in Singapore whether JC or Poly to restore my Student Pass after being treated unkindly by some persons in secondary school which forced me to leave the school and put in this predicament.

[talk007]

Sorry if I missed some details. If you are eligible for 30 days on arrival visa like asean countries, you can try to come over during your exam day or earlier and print out your exam registration, explain to the immigration officer on your entry. If you need to apply visa in your home country first, get that exam registration printout as well to back your case, as well other attendance for other programs.

All the best. Keep trying, the doors are open for a person like you who determine to be successful.

[PNGMK]

I suggest you work on a contingency plan and see if you can sit the exams as a private candidate in other countries such as Malaysia, India or perhaps HK.

[XP Mai]

I suggest you work on a contingency plan and see if you can sit the exams as a private candidate in other countries such as Malaysia, India or perhaps HK.

I'm fully aware of that…… that would ruin my academics progress and effectively make me a "retained kid" despite my studies, and it is financially unviable for me to afford the expenses of O-Level because it is beyond what you think (cost of exam) but also costly science lab tutorials in order to be eligible to sit for the science examinations.

Neither can I assimilate back into my home country education properly because I spent 10+ years for this, based on estimations it will set me back at least 2 years to re-learn everything with a different language of instruction.

But yes, it is very probable I'm going to lose everything the way things are going. I'll lose everything not because of myself (poor academics) but external factors (immigration, bureaucracy) that isn't within my control nor my fault.

[PNGMK]

I'm going to put this text below not for you but others reading this.

Based on extremely high level contacts I have I can assure all readers that Singapore is NOT trying to become a centre of education for primary or secondary students. They do not see this as a core business they want to invest in or have others invest in but rather as something they have to allow for expats who want to educate their children. You should not see Singapore as an education destination for your children unless you yourself are living in Singapore.

I realize there are schools catering to this market (Japanese, Korean kids and children of other nationalities living here with guardians set up) but this is a sunset business. Education here for primary and secondary children has been revamped about 7 years ago and this is the result of that. The change appears to have been made for political reasons and as such is not likely to change without a change of govt (and any govt change will be to an even less foreigner tolerant govt).

There are other countries with excellent schools who are chasing this market and who have visas set up for this - Malaysia and Thailand and Australia for example. Send your kids there.

Note - for tertiary education (esp post grad up) this does not seem to be the case yet but who wants a degree from Singapore anyways?

[sundaymorningstaple]

O-Level is of paramount importance for me because it is the only way for me to re-join mainstream schooling in Singapore whether JC or Poly to restore my Student Pass after being treated unkindly by some persons in secondary school which forced me to leave the school and put in this predicament.

I'll lose everything not because of myself (poor academics) but external factors (immigration, bureaucracy) that isn't within my control nor my fault.

I have been following this but haven't gotten involved up to now. XP Mai, please, for me and anybody else who happened to catch the anomaly between your first post and the last post (both quoted above & bolded in blue text).

The first statement isn't clear. Who, exactly, forced you to leave the school? If nobody forced you but you felt you had to leave the school, then the second statement highlighted is not correct and it is possibly/probably why ICA will not budge.

[XP Mai]

O-Level is of paramount importance for me because it is the only way for me to re-join mainstream schooling in Singapore whether JC or Poly to restore my Student Pass after being treated unkindly by some persons in secondary school which forced me to leave the school and put in this predicament.

I'll lose everything not because of myself (poor academics) but external factors (immigration, bureaucracy) that isn't within my control nor my fault.

I have been following this but haven't gotten involved up to now. XP Mai, please, for me and anybody else who happened to catch the anomaly between your first post and the last post (both quoted above & bolded in blue text).

The first statement isn't clear. Who, exactly, forced you to leave the school? If nobody forced you but you felt you had to leave the school, then the second statement highlighted is not correct and it is possibly/probably why ICA will not budge.

I see. Yes, a few people have also pointed me out this thing exactly like what you said.

I was told that no matter what, it would be a better choice for me to remain in school. Haiss, but it's really hard and difficult for me to convince you the alteration of events that occurred and very probable most people in my shoe would've done the same. My leave from that school was legally endorsed by psychologist, not just any any how drop out.

It's difficult for me to explain that, but I think at this point, it's pointless for me to grasp the past unless it directly matters the presence, which is unlikely because MOE and ICA insists they are independent.

[XP Mai]

I'm going to put this text below not for you but others reading this.

Based on extremely high level contacts I have I can assure all readers that Singapore is NOT trying to become a centre of education for primary or secondary students. They do not see this as a core business they want to invest in or have others invest in but rather as something they have to allow for expats who want to educate their children. You should not see Singapore as an education destination for your children unless you yourself are living in Singapore.

I realize there are schools catering to this market (Japanese, Korean kids and children of other nationalities living here with guardians set up) but this is a sunset business. Education here for primary and secondary children has been revamped about 7 years ago and this is the result of that. The change appears to have been made for political reasons and as such is not likely to change without a change of govt (and any govt change will be to an even less foreigner tolerant govt).

There are other countries with excellent schools who are chasing this market and who have visas set up for this - Malaysia and Thailand and Australia for example. Send your kids there.

Note - for tertiary education (esp post grad up) this does not seem to be the case yet but who wants a degree from Singapore anyways?

Ahh, thank you! You've just reminded me I still have Malaysia as an option. I somehow never thought of Malaysia even though I know it's a country beside Singapore

O-Level is not a very distant syllabus in Malaysian education system compared to other Southeast Asian countries so I guess I'll explore options in Malaysia and see if it works out.

Because in other countries like Vietnam, even though PPP is much lower, but O-Level is such a distant syllabus compared to the norm there, pursing IGCSE there therefore is an extreme luxury