Years of stud­ies, prac­tice tests and ex­tra lessons came to an end for thou­sands of pri­ma­ry school stu­dents who sat the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tions yes­ter­day, as par­ents and their chil­dren cel­e­brat­ed the end of the first phase of their ed­u­ca­tion jour­ney.

A me­dia re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion yes­ter­day con­firmed that 17,573 stu­dents were reg­is­tered to write the ex­ams at 547 cen­tres na­tion­wide.

At sev­er­al schools along the east-west cor­ri­dor, par­ents were seen walk­ing their chil­dren to school from as ear­ly as 6.30 am, with some of­fer­ing prayers and last-minute en­cour­age­ment be­fore the ex­am.