These student athletes did not qualify for RI based on their PSLE scores, but simply got in through some backdoor program for underachieving morons who could play sports.
The student athletes helped RI win lots of trophies, and RI in return allowed these students to brag to their non-RI friends for 4 years about their RI status. After four years, RI simply told them to fuck off. From the article, it is clear that the RI students in the O-level group are the losers of the school, and any teacher assigned to teach them instead of the IP students are probably in the same category. Little wonder nearly all the students did badly for their O-level exams.