Use of SingPass for Primary School Online Registration

Ms Lee Li Lian asked the Minister for Education what is the rationale for not allowing single parents' SingPass to be used for their children's Primary school online enrolment.

The school requires the parents of a child to provide supporting documents, including the birth certificate of the child and the identity cards of both parents, to register a child for a Primary school during the Primary 1 (P1) Registration Exercise. These documents prove the parents'

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relationship, and show that both parents have jointly decided to register the child in that school. Single parents can register with the one parent's identity card, provided they can provide other relevant documents to confirm their marital situation. This measure reduces the risk of the other parent, in divorced or separation cases, disputing the parent's right to register the child in a specific school.

As part of the Ministry's efforts to find new ways to improve our service delivery, the Primary 1 Internet System (P1-IS) was started in 2011, as an alternative channel for the convenience of parents who are registering their child in one of the schools where it is being tried out. The P1-IS similarly needs to verify that the adults submitting the registration online are the parents of the child, and this is done by both parents keying in their individual SingPass. However, if only one SingPass is keyed in, as in the case of a single parent, the system cannot verify the actual circumstances. This is why single parents would need to register at their chosen school, with the relevant supporting documents.