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[mumenetan]

Hi,

I read that we have to join on 30 June if we want to try for 2b.

If i want to join as volunteers now and try to be EM for my son’s school enrollment will it be too late? My son is born on 2012… and wil probably be under the 2018.

not sure to join or not.

thanks

[grimm]

From what I have read around here, it likely too late as apparently there is a 2-year service requirement and you will not start as an EM straight away but rather as an observer.


There were a couple of posts back in mid July on this thread where a forum member with 21-months of service was rejected by PA

[troychua79]

PA now is very strict on the 2 years requirement, as they cannot be seen as bending the rules. Furthermore adviser need to endorse so they also don’t want the public to question why there are double standards.


Maybe can try PV or other schemes?

[friendli]

Agree with Waterbay that the Phase 2A is not fair. Only the contribute alumni should be given the priority rather than the ones who already graduated 30 years ago and never come back to school after that. For top schools, people(alumni) who live very far far away to have their 6 years old child waken up very early to attend the good school. This is not good for the young generation’s health and safety, and bad for transportation situation in Singapore at least. Now as Waterbay said, most vacancies are taken in Phase 2A, that means top parents from top schools transfer their priority to their children and left almost nothing(20+20 from 300 in all) to the ordinary citizens. However, where is the primary school get money from? the Alumni or the TAX from everyone?

[troychua79]

friendli:

Agree with Waterbay that the Phase 2A is not fair. Only the contribute alumni should be given the priority rather than the ones who already graduated 30 years ago and never come back to school after that. For top schools, people(alumni) who live very far far away to have their 6 years old child waken up very early to attend the good school. This is not good for the young generation's health and safety, and bad for transportation situation in Singapore at least. Now as Waterbay said, most vacancies are taken in Phase 2A, that means top parents from top schools transfer their priority to their children and left almost nothing(20+20 from 300 in all) to the ordinary citizens. However, where is the primary school get money from? the Alumni or the TAX from everyone?

IMHO.

Most of the popular schools are Govt-aided schools meaning they are financially independent from MOE to a certain extent, they can get money from alumni fees and can conduct their own fund raising, and they tend to grow faster because of the additional money. So phase 2A is supposedly to \"reward\" this group who contributed to the growth of the school financially.

[friendli]

troychua79:

friendli:

Agree with Waterbay that the Phase 2A is not fair. Only the contribute alumni should be given the priority rather than the ones who already graduated 30 years ago and never come back to school after that. For top schools, people(alumni) who live very far far away to have their 6 years old child waken up very early to attend the good school. This is not good for the young generation's health and safety, and bad for transportation situation in Singapore at least. Now as Waterbay said, most vacancies are taken in Phase 2A, that means top parents from top schools transfer their priority to their children and left almost nothing(20+20 from 300 in all) to the ordinary citizens. However, where is the primary school get money from? the Alumni or the TAX from everyone?

IMHO.

Most of the popular schools are Govt-aided schools meaning they are financially independent from MOE to a certain extent, they can get money from alumni fees and can conduct their own fund raising, and they tend to grow faster because of the additional money. So phase 2A is supposedly to \"reward\" this group who contributed to the growth of the school financially.

The question is how much is on their own? Even IP school like RI or Hua Chong depend on MOE for 90% above for funding. And the primary school is compulsory education, not to forget.

[troychua79]

I was at ACS Junior for my son’s registration, there are endless tiles bearing donor names, and these don’t include other donations who don’t have a tile so I can only imagine how much funds were collected.

[grimm]

It is a fair question to ask whether alumni should get priority when everyone is a tax payer and the schools are mostly funded tax-payers’ money.


I was thinking perhaps a fair solution is for schools who want to give their alumni priority should receive less funding from MOE?

For the sake of illustration, according to the World Bank, Singapore spends about 11% of our GDP per capita annually on primary school students which works out $8100 a year (based on a GDP per capita of USD55K or SGD74K) or about $700 per month.

So maybe schools who want to give alumni or former students priority should have their funding halved? Meaning the rest of the funding will come from student fees which means students of these schools will have to pay $350 - $400 a month (instead of close to nothing right now)?

Will that be fairer? Probably but I don’t like the solution because it’s a slippery slope to go down that path. Because it will not stop a few hundred dollars a month, it will probably go up to the current international school fee of $1000 a month. Then these schools will be truly be the elitist because only some can afford to attend.

[floppy]

grimm:

Will that be fairer? Probably but I don't like the solution because it's a slippery slope to go down that path. Because it will not stop a few hundred dollars a month, it will probably go up to the current international school fee of $1000 a month. Then these schools will be truly be the elitist because only some can afford to attend.

The alternate argument is, if schools don't want to leave places for 2B or 2C, they can choose not to receive funding from MOE?

[grimm]

floppy:

grimm:

Will that be fairer? Probably but I don't like the solution because it's a slippery slope to go down that path. Because it will not stop a few hundred dollars a month, it will probably go up to the current international school fee of $1000 a month. Then these schools will be truly be the elitist because only some can afford to attend.

The alternate argument is, if schools don't want to leave places for 2B or 2C, they can choose not to receive funding from MOE?

Like I said, slippery slope.....who knows what pile of manure we will end up in...