Debated in Parliament on 3 Oct 2017.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Education (Schools) (a) on average over the last three years, what has been the percentage of Primary 1 school children who have successfully enrolled in their parents' alma mater; (b) of these children, what proportion has stayed more than eight kilometres from their schools; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider modifying the enrolment criteria to include both consideration for school ties and distance between the school and residence to ensure shorter commutes for these young children.
Sir, the number of applicants admitted at Phases 2A1 and 2A2 has remained fairly stable over the past three years at around 12% of the Primary 1 cohort.
Out of all successful applicants at Phases 2A1 and 2A2 in the past three Primary 1 registration exercises, less than 15% stay more than eight kilometres (km) away from their schools. So, they form less than 2% of the total Primary 1 cohort.
The current Primary 1 framework does recognise the need to consider school ties and home-school distance together, as priority is given to those who live within one km of the school, followed by those who live between one km and two km, and then only those who live more than two km from the school.
Mr Speaker: Mr Gan Thiam Poh.
I thank the Senior Minister of State for the comprehensive reply. From my personal experience, we do have cases where the residents actually stay next to the school and could not get a place. So, would there be a further review probably to look at the distance, in other words, those who stay nearby will get the priority? Would there be any possibility for the Ministry of Education to review and look at all these cases?
Sir, I thank the Member for the question. There is always going to be a need to balance out the availability of spaces for proximity as well as to make sure that parents have some opportunity to send children to their alma mater or if the sibling is already in that school and the family has relocated. So, there is always going to be a balance that we have to strike between these varying needs. We will always be tracking the data around Primary 1 admission very, very carefully.
PAPERCUTS