Criteria for Opening of Primary School in Neighbourhood

Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Education (a) what criteria are used to decide if a Primary school should be opened in a neighbourhood; and (b) under what circumstances will the Ministry consider reopening Pandan Primary School to meet the needs of Teban Gardens and Pandan Gardens residents.

MOE regularly reviews the demand and supply trends at the national and local levels to ensure that there are sufficient school places for every P1-going child. Our school planning takes into account the current and projected population and planned housing development programmes to ensure that there are sufficient school places to meet the demands of each residential area.

While MOE tries to ensure that every child of school-going age in Singapore has a place in a school reasonably near his or her home, it will not be possible to build a Primary school in every area. Every new school needs to have a sufficient catchment of students to enable it to mount a range of activities for the benefit of the students, and to be run efficiently.

Parents with Primary school-going children living in Teban Gardens and Pandan Gardens have four Primary schools within 2 km to send their children to Clementi Primary School, Fuhua Primary School, Nan Hua Primary School and Qifa Primary School. As there are sufficient Primary school places in the area, we have no plans to build any new Primary schools in the vicinity or to re-open the former Pandan Primary School.

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