Pre-registration Indication of Interest in Primary Schools

91 Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Education (Schools) whether the Ministry will consider collating indications of interest in preferred primary schools from parents for their children a couple of years before Primary 1 registration to better plan for future intakes of each primary school and allocation of resources to the school.

Mr Ng Chee Meng: In planning the enrolment of schools, the Ministry of Education (MOE) regularly reviews the demand and supply trends at the national and regional levesl, to ensure that there are sufficient vacancies for all eligible Primary 1 students. Our school planning takes into account the current and projected population and planned housing development programmes.

It would not be meaningful to collate indications of interest from parents before the Primary 1 Registration Exercise. This is because parents’ choices can change over time, and we should allow for this to happen. It would also not be tenable for intakes of schools to be planned based on parents' choices, as schools should be appropriately sized to enable them to mount a range of activities for the benefit of all students, and to be run efficiently.

What is most important to MOE is that every student receives a good quality, holistic education. Therefore, we have been resourcing all our schools with well-trained teachers, high-quality education facilities and rigorous school programmes and will continue to do so.