Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Hazel Poa, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament
Question
To ask the Minister for Education what is the number of primary schools which required balloting for Primary 1 registration in Phase 2A in 2023 which also had its intake reduced compared to 2003.
Response
1. Over the past two decades, the school landscape has evolved significantly to better support the educational needs of our students. Besides building new primary schools in growing towns, MOE also moved all primary schools from double session to single session, and reduced class sizes at the Primary One and Two levels to thirty per class. We also merged and relocated schools, as well as reduced the intake of some schools, in line with the falling cohort size and demand in that area.
2. In recent years, MOE has been making changes to the Primary One Registration Framework. For example, from the 2018 Primary One Registration Exercise, children who were enrolled in the MOE Kindergarten located in the primary school became eligible for Phase 2A2 to facilitate their transition into that primary school; and from the 2022 Primary One Registration Exercise, we ringfenced more places for Phase 2C, and combined Phases 2A1 and 2A2 into a single Phase 2A. These changes were made to allow more children without prior connections, i.e. children whose parents or siblings need not have studied in the school, a higher chance of gaining admission to the school at the Primary One Registration Exercise.
3. Therefore, to the Member's question, it would not be relevant to try to make links between one move and changes in balloting patterns over 20 years.