P1 places reserved for Phase 2C doubled to 40: Singapore parents react to enrolment changes

The Ministry of Education (MOE) will be making changes to the Primary One (P1) Registration framework to ensure that all schools remain accessible to children from all backgrounds.

In a press release posted on Thursday (Sept 9), MOE announced that they will double the number of reserved places under the P1 Registration Phase 2C from 20 to 40.

MOE P1 Registration: More reserved places for Phase 2C

Earlier this year, MOE announced that they would review the P1 Registration framework to help more children obtain a place in a school near their home in Phase 2C.

Now that the review has been completed by MOE, several changes will be made from the 2022 P1 Registration Exercise.

As Phase 2C is known to be the most competitive during the registration process, the ministry has decided to increase the reserved places for this phase.

"In the 2021 P1 Registration Exercise, about one in three schools balloted in Phase 2C in the Singapore Citizens (SC) living within 1km of the school ('SC within 1km') category, which is an increase from one in four schools that balloted in that category in the 2014 P1 Registration Exercise," says MOE.

Due to this, the number of places reserved have been doubled to 40 places in each primary school, starting from next year.

Meanwhile, Phase 2B will continue to have only 20 reserved places. This means you will notice a total of 60 reserved places set aside in all schools at the start of the MOE P1 Registration exercise.

One-third of any remaining vacancies at the end of Phase 2A2 will also be allocated to Phase 2B. In addition to this, two-thirds of vacancies will allocate to Phase 2C.

Phases 2A1 and 2A2 will be combined

Phase 2A1 in the P1 Registration exercise prioritises alumni members to encourage stronger community support for schools. After a review of the differentiation of priority between Phase 2A1 and 2A2, the ministry has decided to just combine both.

This is for schools that are expected to have relatively fewer or even no places left for Phase 2A2 registrants if they resume maintaining the differentiation or priority between the registrants of the two phases.

To ensure that all Phase 2A2 registrants continue to have a chance to register, Phase 2A1 and 2A2 will be combined into a single Phase 2A.

"This would also better achieve the objective of providing priority admission for MOE Kindergarten children, who are currently eligible for Phase 2A2, to support their transition to P1. Phase 2A1 registrants will continue to be able to register under Phase 2A," adds MOE.

Updates in computation for home-school distances

MOE also has planned to update the methodology for calculating Home-School Distance (HSD) in the P1 Registration Exercise.

As of now, this is calculated from a single reference point based on the school's original building layout to the student's home.

But starting from next year's P1 registration, HSD will be calculated based on the School Land Boundary (SLB). This would be from any point on the boundary around the school to the home of the registrant.

"The SLB is much less likely to change over time, and is a more stable basis to compute HSD. Using the SLB to compute HSD would result in a slightly larger coverage of residential addresses within 1km and 2km for all our primary schools, compared to the current methodology using a single reference point," says the ministry.

You can refer to OneMap for the updated maps showing the buildings within 1km and 2km of all primary schools.

The majority of registrants applying to primary schools will not be affected under this updated methodology. Meanwhile, some registrants will get to be in a nearer HSD category.

Three primary schools including Cedar Primary School, Maris Stella High School (primary section) and Marymount Convent School will have a small number of registrants who will be shifted to a further HSD category.

MOE explains that this has been done because the original reference points of these schools are outside the SLB due to "significant past upgrading or re-building works, coupled with school boundary changes,"

"For the purposes of the 2022 P1 Registration Exercise, MOE will allow this small affected group to retain their original HSD as a once-off transitional arrangement," adds the ministry.

Singapore P1 parents' reactions to changes in enrollment process

With the changes MOE has made regarding the P1 Registration process, it's no surprise that theAsianparent community has been in overdrive mode.

According to Singaporean parent and theAsianparent CEO and Founder, Roshni Mahtani Cheung, most parents are in favour of these changes.

"There were hundreds of pings once this news broke, especially amongst the 2016 mums. Most are in favour of these changes, but they worry that if it is based on distance. All the houses near branded schools will sky rocket even more. The parents who joined the alumni groups and paid up to join it are obviously upset," she explains.

[[nid:543749]]

Mahtani-Cheung notes that while this is a move in the right direction, there are a few more things that can be done to make the process a lot fairer.

She further explains, "Firstly, we should limit alumni enrolment to within 5 km of the school. It doesn't make sense for kids to wake up an hour and a half earlier each day just to get to school. I know of many friends who make the hour to 90 mins long commute daily just to send their child to their alumni school."

"Another thing to consider is to remove the parent volunteer scheme altogether. It's currently a black box, there's no one repository to find out where you can volunteer or who gets accepted as a volunteer," adds Roshni.

"We ran a poll on theAsianparent to ask Singaporean mums about how they feel about parent volunteering. About 65 per cent of parents deemed it ridiculous. The main feedback was we don't have time to volunteer. Parent volunteering is much harder for working parents. Parents have shared horror stories about using their annual leave just so they can clock up the 80 hours needed for some of the more prominent primary schools," she notes.

Adding, "However by and large this change is welcomed by most. These new rulings have allowed me personally to heave a sigh of relief. One less thing to worry about."

This article was first published in theAsianparent.