National Junior College was the first school to offer the Art Elective Programme (AEP) in 1985 to allow student with a passion in Art to develop their talents. Under this programme, the college also provides specialised facilities to allow students to experiment with different art media. At the end of this programme, students are expected to sit for Art as a subject at the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level at both the Higher 2 and Higher 3 levels. The college was also one of the six college to pioneer the Humanities Programme scheme in 1987, a scheme by Singapore's Ministry of Education to encourage students to pursue the study of humanities at the pre-university level. In 1992, German was introduced as a subject for the first time in a junior college under the Language Elective Programme.