A new junior college will be built in 2017, to serve students from three of the schools.

The seven schools are Victoria School, Cedar Girls' Secondary, Methodist Girls' School, St Joseph's Institution, Catholic High School, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School and the Singapore Chinese Girls' School.

They will follow a common core curriculum, while retaining the flexibility to develop their own programmes.

From 2012, Victoria School and Cedar Girls' Secondary will be paired with Victoria JC, which already runs the programme.

The rest will begin in 2013.

Methodist Girls' School will partner the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), which currently offers the International Baccalaureate while students from St Joseph's Institution will also take the IB.

Temasek JC will expand its programme to take in Year 1 and 2 students.

Students from Catholic High, St Nicholas Girls' and the Singapore Chinese Girls' School will take their A-levels at a new junior college to be set up by 2017.

The new junior college will also take in students through the O-level track. The Education Ministry gave the assurance that for those taking the exams, there will be enough places for them at the junior colleges under the Integrated Programme.

A ministry spokesperson noted that "there is a minimum of 20 percent of JC1 places at each IP JC today set aside for O-Level students. This will be retained following the IP expansion".

The schools were chosen based on their proposals.

Dr Ng Eng Hen, Education & Second Defence Minister, said during a press conference: "I would describe it as "facilitated matchmaking". But the partners must be attracted to one another in the first place. MOE doesn't force-fit marriages."

On the pairing up of Catholic High School, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School and the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, Dr Ng noted that, "It's quite an interesting mix, it's not an existing configuration of three schools, and I want to be pleasantly surprised by the outcome."

Currently, some of the IP schools accept students at Secondary Three.

Lee Pei Xuan from Cedar Girls' Secondary has applied to take up this option at Victoria JC next year, and is readying herself for the challenge as she also likes having more time to prepare for her A-levels.

"Personally, I think skipping the O-levels is actually not a big issue, especially when you know for sure that you're going to university and JC," she said.

Despite the new changes, the seven schools will still retain the O-level track.

Mr Low Eng Teong, Principal of Victoria School said: "Students may come into the IP and decide after a while that they are more suited for the O-levels.

"And vice versa, a student in the O-levels who may not gain entry into the IP in the first place, a sort of late-bloomer, may find that they have the attributes and be allowed to cross over."

About 10 percent of each PSLE cohort will be eligible for the Integrated Programme.

Rachel Tay, a mother of three girls welcomed the new changes.

"With a renewed emphasis now on the humanities and the arts, children have to learn that in different ways, not necessarily through taking exams. So if they were to do more project work and multi-media work, that would actually help them in terms of learning," she said.

Her eldest daughter, Hannah, who is in Primary 6, said if given the choice, she would take up the Integrated Programme - where top students are able to skip the O-levels.

"It's something new, and I think it would be fun to do activities with people from other schools, and not just stay enclosed within our own school grounds

"The O-levels, I think it's quite challenging and very stressful, so maybe sparing me the stress a little bit might do me good." - CNA/fa