P1 registration: 15% of Phase 2C students at 12 popular primary schools live in public housing

SINGAPORE - Fewer than 1 in 6 students who enter 12 popular schools here during Phase 2C of the Primary 1 registration come from public housing, said Education Minister Desmond Lee.

Lee cited this statistic on Oct 7, as he responded in Parliament to 16 questions that MPs had filed on changes to the P1 registration system that the Ministry of Education (MOE) had announced on Sept 10.

The changes mean that, from the next registration exercise in 2027, most schools here will reserve 60 spots for children in Phase 2C, up from the current 40. This phase is for students without prior connections to the school, with those living nearby getting priority admission.

Additionally, 12 schools in neighbourhoods where public housing is significantly lower than the national average will set aside spots in Phase 2C for children who live more than 2km away, to ensure access to a more diverse mix of applicants.

These schools will split the 60 reserved places - along with any spots leftover from previous stages - into two tracks, with half of the places meant for those staying within 2km of the school and the remaining half for those who live further away.

Lee said on Oct 7 that, for a start, MOE has decided to implement this two-track scheme in neighbourhoods where public housing constitutes less than 40 per cent of homes within a 2km radius.

Schools in these neighbourhoods tend to reflect this social mix, and the 15 per cent of successful Phase 2C applicants who come from public housing “is very low” and is something that MOE is keeping an eye on, he added.

MPs who filed questions on the topic included Gho Sze Kee (Mountbatten), who asked if the changes might “systematically disadvantage” children who live next to a school coming under the two-track scheme.

Gho said she had spoken to many upset parents, as the only primary school in her ward is Kong Hwa School, which is routinely oversubscribed. Of the other schools close by, four are on the list of 12 schools - Tanjong Katong Primary, Tao Nan School, CHIJ Katong (Primary) and Ngee Ann Primary.

“With this new framework, we are simply drawing a circle around a school and handicapping every children living within that circle,” she said. “Worse, this framework makes the assumption that children living outside of that circle will be from different socio-economic backgrounds.”

In response, Lee said the increased ring-fencing of spots under Phase 2C is precisely to tilt the allocation in favour of those living near to a school like Kong Hwa.

The objective of both changes is to widen access for children regardless of prior connections to a school and to encourage more mixing among students from different backgrounds, he added.

When a neighbourhood consists predominantly of one housing type, home-school distance by itself does not necessarily widen access to families of different socio-economic backgrounds, which is why the two-track scheme is being implemented, said Lee.

Nominated MP Kenneth Goh said increasing the number of places in Phase 2C comes at the expense of other groups who would benefit in earlier phases, such as the children of alumni. He suggested expanding the number of vacancies in popular schools that are consistently oversubscribed, or to allow these schools to open in new locations.

Lee said that increasing the intake for popular schools sounds sensible, but larger cohorts will run up against infrastructure constraints, such as the need for more classrooms at the expense of spaces for other meaningful activities.

Should such schools have room to expand and increase their intake, this might not necessarily improve their social mix, he noted.

Meanwhile, enrolment at other nearby schools might also fall, given that cohort sizes are shrinking, which could lead to the merger or closure of these schools and impact MOE’s ability to provide a good spread of schools across the island, said the minister.

As for letting a popular school take over the name and grounds of a less popular school, some of the alumni and community of these so-called less popular schools “have a very strong view about that”, said Lee.

Non-Constituency MP Andre Low asked what baseline or outcome indicators MOE will use to assess socio-economic mixing, and if the ministry will publish annual statistics on application and admission outcomes for each school.

In response, Lee said there is no such construct to see if a school meets an ideal socio-economic mix, because no two schools - nor neighbourhoods - are identical.

“The school mix is a function of many things - the legacy of the school, the so-called popularity of the school, the make-up of its neighborhood and so on,” he said.

The minister said that ultimately, parents make a decision on where they would like to place their children, and they have different considerations. These include distance to one’s home or workplace, that they were alumni of a school, or that a school provides a programme that resonates with them.

“Ultimately, whether (the changes) work will depend, as I said, on parental decisions,” said Lee. “But at least now we widen the circle and give opportunities. And for those living within zero to two kilometers, we are preserving access, we are not taking it away.”