Sufficient Vacancies in Primary Schools Given New HDB BTO Projects in Yishun

Mr Speaker, MOE regularly reviews the demand and supply trends at the national and regional levels to ensure that there are sufficient school places for school-going children, taking into account the current and projected population as well as planned housing development programmes.

Due to the families that are moving into the HDB BTO flats in Yishun that were completed in recent years, we have projected a slight increase in the demand for Primary school places at all levels. To cater for this increase, we have introduced several measures, including increasing the number of available school places in some of the schools in certain years. There should be sufficient Primary school places to meet the increased demand from these families.

MOE has always been assisting families which had a change of address to transfer schools throughout the academic year. Parents can participate in the annual Student Transfer Exercise for Primary Schools (STEPS) conducted around November each year, which serves to facilitate the transfer of students who have relocated to another address, to schools nearer to their new residences. If parents prefer to directly approach the school they would like to transfer their children to, they could do so at other times of the year. Alternatively, parents can approach their child's current school and submit their request for school transfer.

However, the Member may wish to note that for transfer cases, parents may sometimes not get the school of their choice due to the lack of available vacancies. MOE cannot keep increasing the intake of particular schools beyond the capacity of the school as it would affect the learning environment of all students. In such situations, we seek parents' understanding to consider other Primary schools near their residential address.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to ask a supplementary question.

Yes, residents approached schools in Yishun to transfer their children from other parts of Singapore when they shifted into Yishun. They could not get it and then they approached the Member of Parliament, the Member has experienced problems. Because we found out that the schools in Nee Soon South currently are unable to take in any student in Primary 2, in particular. I would like to ask whether there is any detailed study. Because now, only about half has shifted in. There will be another half shifting in progressively over the next one year.

I thank Er Dr Lee Bee Wah for her supplementary question. As I have said earlier, there are available schools and places to accommodate all the transfer cases in Yishun. However, there are certain schools that, as mentioned by Er Dr Lee Bee Wah, may only be able to take in students at certain levels. In these schools, there are school places for the majority of all levels.

There are a few other schools that are close to the planned BTO development that have available places, for example, Ahmad Ibrahim Primary, Xishan Primary as well as Yishun Primary, which are all within three kilometres from the new BTO estates.

From our correspondence with Er Dr Lee Bee Wah as well as the residents, we have placed a few of these students who have made requests to transfer schools due to a change of address. Some are very appreciative, while others may have their own choices.

At the end of the day, I want to assure the Member that we are very committed and we will do our best to place and facilitate the transfer of all the children when their parents make the request. However, we seek parents' and Members' understanding that, at times, we may need to facilitate to transfer them to a school that is maybe their second or third preferred choice.