Polytechnic Courses: Who Says Humanities are Not Important?

Many students aiming for entry into Polytechnic think that they can give up on Combined Humanities. They feel that it is not required and that is true for most Polytechnic courses.

However, some Polytechnics courses require students to do well for Combined Humanities. It can also be another Humanities subject like History or Geography. Regrettably, these courses tend to be the most popular.

Polytechnic Course Requirements

There are a few early entry schemes to selected Polytechnic Courses. They are not the subject of this blog, so I will not discuss them. I will only focus on the entry due to O Level requirements.

ELR2B2, which means the English Language, two Relevant subjects and 2 Best subjects, determine what a student can enrol in. This is a point system, and your grade determines the points. If you score A1, you get 1 point. If you score C5, you get 5 points and so on.

The student chooses the Relevant subjects from two groups. These subjects are deemed relevant, which as you can guess from its name. The best subjects are the best scoring ones after English and the two Relevant subjects.

In general, technical courses require science subjects; while courses that require more language use require Combined Humanities.

How do the polytechnics ensure what are the Relevant subjects? ELR2B2 is further divided in ELR2B2-A to -D. In other words, within ELR2B2, there are further refinements. Do take note that certain courses require more Relevant subjects.

The Special Role of English

Before moving to the Combined Humanities, let me stress that all courses require English. Languages are considered Humanities subjects. Whenever someone tells you that Humanities is not required for polytechnic is wrong. It is the only truly compulsory subject.

ELR2B2-A

I will only concentrate on ELR2B2-A as this group has clear Combined Humanities requirements. If you read the polytechnic or MOE websites, you will see these requirements spelt out. To save time, I have included them here:1^st Group of Relevant Subjects  

Art / Art & Design	Business Studies	Combined Humanities	Commerce
Commercial Studies	Economics	Geography	Higher Art
Higher Music	History	Intro to Enterprise Development	Literature in English
Literature in Chinese	Literature in Malay	Literature in Tamil	Media Studies (English)
Media Studies (Chinese)

  2^nd Group of Relevant Studies  

Additional Mathematics	Art / Art & Design	Business Studies	Chinese
Combined Humanities	Commerce	Commercial Studies	Creative 3D Animation
Design & Technology	Design Studies	Economics	Elementary Mathematics
Food & Nutrition	Geography	Higher Art	Higher Chinese
Higher Malay	Higher Music	Higher Tamil	History
Intro to Enterprise Development	Literature in English	Literature in Chinese	Literature in Malay
Literature in Tamil	Malay	Media Studies (English)	Media Studies (Chinese)
Music	Principles of Accounts	Tamil

I have highlighted the common Humanities subjects offered in typical schools. It is possible for students taking Higher Art, for example, to not use a Humanities subject as a Relevant subject. However, it will be rare.

As a side note, one group of Relevant Subjects for ELR2B2-B includes Combined Humanities. The basket of Relevant subjects is the same as the 1st Group of ELR2B2-A, but with the inclusion of Principles of Accounts.

Courses

Here are some of the courses available:

Nanyang Polytechnic

ELR2B2-A	Range	ELR2B2-B	Range
Social Sciences (Social Work)	6-10	Accountancy & Finance	6-12
		Banking & Finance	3-14
		Business Management	6-16
		Food & Beverage Business	4-16
		Hospitality & Tourism Management	8-14
		Mass Media Management	4-13
		Sports & Wellness Management	9-16

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

ELR2B2-A	Range	ELR2B2-B	Range
Chinese Studies	6-10	Accountancy	5-9
Community Development	–	Arts Business Management	5-10
Tamil Studies with Early Education	8-22	Banking & Finance	4-9
Early Childhood Development & Education	6-15	Business Studies	3-8
Mass Communication	4-10	International Trade & Business	5-10
Chinese Media & Communication	6-13	Tourism & Resort Management	4-11

What have we learnt?

I have only included courses from two polytechnics, but you can see the trends. Media, Social Sciences and Early Education courses usually require Combined Humanities. It is useful for Business courses as well.

These courses have low cut-off points. Many of them are the most popular courses. Hence, scoring well for Combined Humanities will boost the chances of entering a premium polytechnic course.