Last year, 89.3 percent of students went to junior colleges, which preceed university, centralised institutes and polytechnics, compared to just 59.1 percent 10 years ago.

Chinese were the most studious in multi-racial Singapore with 93.8 percent continuing on from secondary education, followed by 76.7 percent of Malays and 75.2 percent of Indians.

In 1990, only 65 percent of Chinese and fewer than 40 percent of Indians and Malays opted for tertiary education.

The objective of collating data on various ethnic groups "is to provide feedback to the communities on how their children have fared in national examinations," the education ministry said in a statement.

In a breakdown of subjects, Chinese students outperformed other races in mathematics and sciences, Indians were strongest in English and Malays had an almost perfect pass rate in mother tongue examinations.

The study also looked at how students fared in their first major national examination, the primary school leaving examination, necessary to qualify for secondary school.

Chinese students had a 97.8 percent pass rate, compared to 93.5 percent of Indians and 91.3 percent of Malays.

"The percentage of pupils who qualified for admission to secondary schools ... had been on the upward trend up to 1996 but has since appeared to be stabilising at about 96 percent overall," the ministry statement said.

Singapore has placed strong emphasis on education success to meet the demands of the higher skill levels of the new economy.