Debated in Parliament on 10 Sep 2012.
Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will consider a further review of the Primary 1 Registration Exercise to set aside at least half the number of available places in each school to cater for pupils registering under Phases 2B and 2C.
The Senior Minister of State for Education (Mr Lawrence Wong) (for the Minister for Education) : The current Primary 1 (P1) Registration Framework seeks to allocate P1 places based on several considerations, including proximity to the school, presence of siblings, parental ties to the school and community involvement. The Ministry of Education (MOE) regularly reviews the P1 Registration Framework, taking into consideration the feedback received after every exercise. We need to carefully weigh these considerations before deciding on any changes.
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Currently, although not everyone can be admitted to their preferred choice school, MOE ensures that there are sufficient school places on a regional basis so that no child will have to travel long distances to his or her Primary school.
Aside from reviewing the P1 Registration Framework, it is more important for every school to be a good school, so that every pupil receives a good quality and holistic education, regardless of the school which he or she attends. In this regard, MOE has been resourcing all our schools with well-trained teachers, investing in suitable education facilities, and ensuring adequate financial support for good school programmes.
We will also continue to encourage parents to make more informed school choices. For example, through the MOE Parents' Seminar and the open houses organised by our schools, parents can learn more about the programmes of different schools. MOE has also developed a video on the key factors parents could consider when selecting Primary schools. By doing so, we hope to encourage parents to select schools that best fit the needs of their child.
Sir, may I ask the Senior Minister of State whether he would agree that young children attending Primary school should not have to travel long distances to their Primary schools? Secondly, in such a case, would the Ministry of Education consider making changes to the P1 Registration Scheme such that children under Phase 2A, which takes into account parents' ties, should not have priority to a Primary school unless they live within a reasonable proximity to the school? Sir, to give an illustration: if I live in Jurong and I am an alumni of the school in the East, I get priority to that school even though I live a long distance away. It would go against the spirit of encouraging parents to recognise that within their own neighbourhood, one of the schools is a good school.
Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for the suggestion. I agree with him that we do not want children to travel long distances to their Primary schools. That is one of the primary considerations when we designed the Registration Framework. The Member has given a suggestion on how the framework can be further refined. As I said, we look at feedback all the time. After every registration exercise, we receive feedback. For every rule that we have, we always have feedback for and against it because there will be parents who want the rule to be maintained and there will be parents who want the rule to be taken away. And you see that in some of the discussions and the letters in the newspapers as well.
That is not to say that we should not change. We continually review, as I said. After every exercise, we will do a review and we will see what can be improved. We will certainly take the Member's suggestion into consideration as part of our regular reviews. But as I mentioned earlier, it is not a problem that can be resolved by tweaking our registration framework. I should emphasise that the bigger emphasis should be to ensure that we resource every school well, so that every child going to any school in Singapore will be assured of a good quality education. That is where the weight of our emphasis is – to make every school a good school, to assure every child going to a school in Singapore that he or she can get a good quality education.
Sir, at each year's P1 registration exercise, it always pains me to see the disappointment in the parents' and children's faces when they are not able to get into the school that is located just a couple of 100 m away from their flats. Instead, they have to go to a school that is much further away and have to incur transport costs, school bus and travelling time. I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State whether for perhaps non-GEP schools, would MOE consider higher allocation to those who live within one km so that they have a higher chance and have a shorter distance to travel to school.
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Just to understand the question better. There already is the priority for those who live nearer.
Sir, I am asking about higher allocation because, right now, we are still seeing children who are only 50 m away from the school, and they cannot get into the school of their choice.
Now, I understand the question. I thank the Member for the suggestion. These are feedback that we get from time to time. I would say, as I mentioned, there are also concerns raised that if you were to give even more priority, the impact on property prices, for example. Would that then force out more parents who may not be able to afford living within that area? Would that be a fairer way of allocating? So, there are different considerations which we have to weigh. It is complex. It is not going to be resolved just by tweaking the formula alone.
The best long-term approach in terms of looking at this issue is not just in terms of tweaking the Primary 1 registration formula but really in investing resources so that every school is a good school. And also reaching out to parents, engaging the community, helping parents understand that whatever school their children go to, there will be resources, there will be good infrastructure, there will be well-trained teachers and their children can be assured of getting good quality education.
I appreciate the suggestions that have been given on tweaking or changes to the Registration Framework. We will review this regularly, as I said. But let us also look at strategies that are going to be sustainable and that will yield more impact. The strategy that we have in terms of investing in every school is the right one.
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