1. The Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) Exercise will commence on 08 July 2010, for admission into polytechnics in 2011. The DPA Exercise will give the polytechnics greater flexibility to select students on criteria other than GCE 'O'-Level results, thus allowing a wider range of talents to be recognised. The DPA Exercise also allows students who are interested in, and who have the aptitude for applied learning, to confirm places in polytechnic courses prior to taking their GCE ‘O’-Level examinations. Students accepted to polytechnics through the DPA can also benefit from special programmes in the polytechnics, before the start of the formal polytechnic classes in April.

2. The five polytechnics – Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic – will each admit up to 2.5% of their Academic Year 2010 intake through DPA, or about 100 students per polytechnic on average. There will also be a course-specific cap of 30% for each polytechnic course under the DPA. This is to ensure that students admitted through the GCE ‘O’-Level route will continue to have access to popular polytechnic courses.