Why old people say O Level as 9 号 ? Pls explain

[Boonsiong]

As above

 

[Hightech88]

As above

In Singapore, some older Chinese-speaking folks refer to O-Level as “9号” (jiu hao) because of the old education system and school streaming terminology used in the 1960s–1980s.

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Background Explanation​

In the past, during the 旧式英语教育制度 (old English-stream school system), students were placed into classes numbered by academic level. The strongest classes were the lower numbers, like 1, 2, 3, and the weaker ones had higher numbers, like 8, 9, 10.
For students who took the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (which is today's GCE O-Level), they were usually placed in Secondary 4 or 5 "Number 9" classes — especially in neighbourhood schools at that time. So the term "9号" became slang referring to the O-Level class or O-Level track.

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Why “9号” became linked to O-Levels​

Term	Meaning in Past Context
9号班（9号）	Class 9 – students taking Cambridge O-Level exam
10号班	Even lower stream – many went to technical/vocational
1号–3号	Express/elite academic streams

So 老一辈说“读9号”就是读O Level (Old people saying "study 9 hao" means going the O-Level route).

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So in short:​

"9号" = O-Level track
Comes from old school streaming system class numbering
Slang used by older Hokkien/Teochew/Mandarin-speaking Singaporeans
Example sentence an uncle might say:

“以前他读9号的啦，现在叫O水准。”
("Last time he was in 9 Hao, now they call it O-Level.")

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If you're curious, I can also explain:

• Why N-Level was called 10号 by some old folks
• Why people used to call Polytechnic "工艺" and ITE "校正所"
  Would you like that follow-up?

-----------------Source : ChatGPT