Elective schools that are available in Singapore:
-School of Science and Technology (SST)
-School of the Arts (SOTA)
-Singapore Sports School
-International schools
1) If your child has immense interest in IT and score A for either Mathematics and the Sciences or both, you can consider enrolling him into SST. SST offers an alternative academic path which focuses on the teaching of IT skills, offering your child an option of not having to go through the normal rote learning. From my student's experience, classes are mostly discursive, with frequent usage of laptops. This innovative method can trigger students' interest to learn. From what i have noticed, the school does not put undue pressure on its students and those who obey their basic rules and regulations have no problems fitting in.
However, here is a big caution! For students who have little self-control over their computer activity be it facebook or cyber gaming, will suffer a deterioration from their academic performance. If they are consistently under-performing, they may be requested to transfer out.
2)Your child may detest rote learning, have problems accepting the academic path and constantly feel stressed out, yet he/she puts their undivided attention on music, singing, dance or the Arts. You are told that they have gifts and talents in the Arts and there's a lot of potential to be uncovered. Consider enrolling them in SOTA! Although secondary schools do have performing arts CCAs that are dedicated to nurture that talent, bulk of their time will still be on academics. SOTA offers a equal emphasis on the arts and academics, even allow the arts to be examinable as a subject. It will be pointless if you send your child to a mainstream secondary school despite his/her desire to enter SOTA. He/she will not be happy there and academics will take a toll. I have students who entered top schools and yet drop out halfway and transfer to SOTA because they simply cannot cope with the rigour and stress. There are even some students who just came back from overseas and prefer SOTA to the mainstream secondary schools due to their more flexible and liberal curriculum.
3)If your child is physically very active, and extrovert and a kinesthetic learner, he/she may just be a sports person. If your child has difficulty coping and is in the normal (technical) stream but he/she is outstanding in sports, why not allow him to pursue his passions in Singapore Sports School (SSS)? Allowing him to enter SSS will not just give him the chance to pursue sports without any restrictions, it will spare him learning technical and vocation skills if he is not at all interested.
4)If your child detests Singapore's rigorous and conformist academic system and he/she already intends to pursue their career overseas, however the time is not right to send them overseas to study, consider enrolling them into international schools. International schools have curriculum that offers a fresh perspective on education with discussion seminars, intensive scientific laboratory work and liberty to decide which subjects to choose. Students are able to express themselves freely, nurturing them to be bold and outspoken individuals which could be highly sought after by employers nowadays. Despite that, the downside is exorbitant school fees and bad influence from western students who engaged in vices.
