The Primary One registration exercise will be conducted from June 30 to Aug 28.

Unlike admission to secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics or universities, the Primary One registration exercise does not select pupils based on merit or academic performance.

Rather, whether a pupil gets into a school is based on his or her relationship with the school.

Priority is given to children who have siblings already enrolled in the school or whose parents have connection with the school in one way or another.

Under Phase 1 of the exercise, a child who has a sibling in a school is given a place automatically.

This is unfair to other children who have no siblings and hope to get into the school.

Parents who have secured a better school for their first child are guaranteed that all their children will have a place in the school.

Hence, they may relax and stop being a volunteer at the school.

Under Phases 2A(1), 2A(2) and 2B, the selection is based on how a child's parents are related to the school.

This include those whose parents or siblings had studied in the school or have joined the school's alumni association, whose parents are staff members of the school, or whose parents have volunteered their services at the school.

These criteria are unfair to parents who did not study in a better school or whose alma mater have closed down.

Some parents have also been unable to establish any connection with their alma mater for whatever reasons.

A child who has no sibling in the school or whose parents have no relationship with the school are grouped under the lower priority of Phase 2C.

It is understandable that the Primary One registration exercise cannot be based on a child's academic performance since there is no one standard examination to gauge their pre-school performance.

However, the use of personal relationships as a basis for Primary One registration does not appear to be fair in a democratic country.

The Ministry of Education should consider moving away from the current practice.

Instead, a balloting system should be used to allocate the places in the schools.

Goh Kian Huat


For more my paper stories click here.