Opinions of the Primary School Registration System

[3Boys]

CayennePepper:

I was just thinking about the suggestions that Phase 2a be tweaked/removed/merged with other phases etc. For all those in support of limiting alumni 'advantage', you do realise that your grandchildren will not get to benefit from your slogging as PVs, etc, to get into that coveted school, should these proposed changes happen some day?


Further, if proximity is going to come into play, maybe one should snap up a choice piece of land today, build a solid house to last for generations and make sure your kids, grandkids and desendants can root there for as long as the school stays in that location...

Btw, i was talking to a friend from a certain ministry recently about phase 2a1 and 2a2. He made a point about the existence of 2a2. Do you guys know that there are schools without any alumni associations? Hence the ex-students can only qualify under 2a2. Maybe that's why the provision is drafted in this inclusive manner? Of course, those who don't benefit from 2A will say, so what, why should we cater to this group.. :evil:

Anyway, I informally presented to him some suggestions about changes to the system, gleaned from this forum. Who knows, maybe in the next few years we'll see some of your ideas implemented!

Am fully aware of the consequences for my progeny. But right is right, it does not change whether stands to gain or lose from it. Thanks for bringing the ideas forward.

[benten2011]

CactusInDesert:

Frankly speaking, the govt has been trying to encourage singaporean to have more kids but the negative policies like this, not protecting it's own citizens and it's future generation don't really speak much abt their effort in doing so. Or they rather have better policies to attract more prs as they have given up on it's own citizens and hoping the prs will take up citizenships?

Come on don't be dishearten my fellow singaporean. I am confident they will change the system next year after reviewing the data from these year. Fingers crossed :xedfingers:

[galleria]

Kissgurami:

galleria:

Honestly speaking, I think this system sucks.... If I have got the moolahs, high chance is i will send my kid to overseas as international student to study instead of staying here... Since it does not matter if I am a SG citizen or PR, also do not have any exclusive priority...

errr... I have a SG friend in UK.. it isn't that easy as having moolah. The good schools conduct home visits to check the living environment, you need to do PV as well and whether your \"background\" is good enough.

I can only say, my friend is more stressed than I am...

Hi kissgurami,

Another way shows that the country/school ensure that the locals have priority over PRs n foreigners. But do u think SG does that. PRs here can have rights by just registering and ballot with locals n if got ballot in means that their kids are able to study in public schools.

[iwantmymama]

Like the stats of PR and Citizens mix by MGS. That’s transparency n speaks volume. There is no comparison to large countries like the US, where foreigners can go to Public School.

[Jav]

ChiefKiasu:

Yes. I absolutely agree that MOE should essentially make information regarding the number of applicants in each distant bucket available in real-time via Internet query. It will help parents to make better decisions, while reducing the load on school administrators.


If carparks can install carpark guidance systems to tell drivers where the empty lots are, there is no reason why such information cannot be made available, especially since MOE is running the central information system for all schools.

At the same time, I would like to propose that MOE make the LAST day of the Phase 2C registration a \"cooling-off\" day.

For schools where applications have not exceeded the allotment, it will be as per normal SOP. For schools where applications have exceeded the allotment, the schools should ONLY allow withdrawals, and NOT accept any new application unless the total number of withdrawals allow them to take on new applicants.

The purpose of this is to allow parents to come upfront and place their bets on the popular schools in the first 2 days, instead of waiting for the last day. On the last day, parents will then be fully cognizant of the riskiness of their decision, and can then decide to withdraw and register in other schools that have not already busted their limit.

For parents who decide to stay in the ballot, they do so with open eyes and cannot complain if they get balloted out. For parents who do not wish to go through the ballot, they will have time to withdraw and try for their 2nd choice schools without wasting their Phase 2C priority, instead of being relegated to Phase 2CS.

The advantage of the \"cooling-off\" day is that it reduces the uncertainty that parents have to deal with when being caught in a ballot situation. Too often, parents are not aware of the odds against them until AFTER the end of the Phase, by which time it is too late for them to make further adjustments.

Any support for this proposal?

Hi Chief, I fully support your proposal. It's my first encounterism with P1 registration, and I must say that the whole system is really driving we all parents insane. I have high regards to Singapore government and they have always designed their system and policy well and effective. It's the time for MOE to review and revise the whole P1 registration system. It's not just matters for the parents, it also concerns the school administrator, teachers and the whole lot of educators. Everyone is so stress, the school administrator answering the phone calls every minute from enthusiast parents asking the updates of the registration numbers, not to mention the stress of staff attending the different stations during the registration - parents withdrawing at last minute, etc.

With on line system, it will be transparent and in this modern era, the information is just at your finger tip to access the internet for the updated numbers.

Your suggestion on \"cooling off\" makes a lot of sense!
The school administrators are so busy, & they don't even have time to inform those parents of more than 1km that their chance has turned to nil when the school is oversubscribed. Not everyone is fully aware about the whole registration system and therefore it explains why parents did not do the withdrawal when it clearly shows that they have no chance if stay beyond 1km.

With \"cooling off\" it also prevents parents from doing last minute change and hence additional stress from the staff to ammend the changes in the system, this was happened between ACSJ & SJIJ when the 2 parents made their changes in the last 10 mins.

I am not sure about previous years, but I observe that a lot of parents wait till the last day & even the last hour to put their stake and left the parents which have placed their bets earlier invalid!

I watched from the news on Channelnews Asia last night, showing some parents turned up to school for registration, all their faces are so stress and worry - afraid filling up wrong information on the forms, etc. I turned up to the school for registration & found many parents were sitting & waiting anxiously for the final result and I also went insane to join the crowd as well. How lame, right!

[benten2011]

galleria:

Kissgurami:

[quote=\"galleria\"]Honestly speaking, I think this system sucks.... If I have got the moolahs, high chance is i will send my kid to overseas as international student to study instead of staying here... Since it does not matter if I am a SG citizen or PR, also do not have any exclusive priority...

errr... I have a SG friend in UK.. it isn't that easy as having moolah. The good schools conduct home visits to check the living environment, you need to do PV as well and whether your \"background\" is good enough.

I can only say, my friend is more stressed than I am...

Hi kissgurami,

Another way shows that the country/school ensure that the locals have priority over PRs n foreigners. But do u think SG does that. PRs here can have rights by just registering and ballot with locals n if got ballot in means that their kids are able to study in public schools.[/quote]Well currently PR's are more visible under Phase 2C> It will be a matter time PR numbers will also increase dramatically under Phase 2B, Phase 2A1 and 2A2 and Phase 1. For example what is stopping PR 's registering under Phase 2B for PV, grassroots or clans? Just a single ballot slip? People like me who have kids registering in the near future are going to face even more pressure. :scared:

[Busymom]

smurf:

If u have time, you can PV, you u dun, you fork out money to buy expensive house near famous sch. Got difference meh? Some people really cannot afford time.

However, you are suggesting that the nearest should get a place. If that is the case, only the ones who has more money would be able to get their kids into the school of choice by living nearest to the school. If you don't have money but willing to sacrifice your time to PV, you don't even get that chance. This is good? :?

[Busymom]

ksi:

3Boys:

The problem is with the increasing flood of applicants at Phase 2A (children of alumni).

I am not sure where you get the info from but statistically in our school, the majority that takes up the vacancies are the siblings group, not the alumni.

I found another statistics for Pei Hwa here reflecting siblings take up most of the seats: http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4407&start=12930

I would rather give credit to the gahmen for a successful 'procreation' incentive to increase the population so much so that many people are having multiple children.

Or rather than the \"procreation incentive\", maybe not all are citizens, yeah? :idea:

[Jav]

A couple of observations and further suggestions after going through the whole registration process:


1. Keep Phase 1 - for siblings priority registration

2. Abort Phase 2A(1), 2A(2), however priority should still be given to the staff, Advisory & Management committee member of the school. There shouldn’t be because parent is an ex-student, the children have priority over, look at all those students which stay at the end of Singapore are coming to Bukit Timah despite long distance travelling. And these left with little places for genuine parents which stay nearby. As a result, these parents have to sign up with the schools of further distance and possibly, need to travel long distance to other neighbourhood school as well. At the end, the children are the ones suffering with lack of sleep and need to wake up early!

3. Abort Phase 2B - most PV & GRL become volunteers with intention to gain priority in P1 reg and not genuinely volunteering. Similarly, should a member of clan or church have the priority over? With this route, everyone will just try to barge their way in.

4. Be strict with those parents not genuinely stay at the address according to their IC. I have heard many stories that many parents would change their address during the first week of the school. It’s amazing to see every year, never fail that at least 250 new families with school going kids, will sprout in Newton/Novena to be within 1 km of the popular schools. These numbers keep increasing every year.

Now, I just wonder how long MOE can close their eyes on this treatment! If the authority wants to get their act up, it’s not difficult to obtain these datas and gel the whole picture. While Chief has done a v good job in Kiasuparents.com, I don’t see why MOE can’t!

5. Even though Singaporeans have an extra slip more than PR, it still does not put Singaporean having more priority than PR. When you are lucky, you are just lucky to be drawn. If PR is allowed to have the same priority in the same phase with S’porean, then cap the percentage of PR in each phase.

6. Some schools are famous for certain reasons, and they must be good that’s why they are popular. Heard from colleague of 2 schools at Tampines, Yumin is not popular and left with many untaken seats, while the school just next to it, Chongzheng is overly subscribed. I just wonder why the 2 schools are not merged up and under the management of Chongzheng, it would then creates more seats with better management, parents are happier & pupils are benefited. Those un-popular schools are unpopular because they are mismanaged, can’t the un-popular school leverage from the popular school, learn from the popular school’s management or just simply have the popular school manage and train the teacher of the un-popular one, sometimes it is just the branding, eg. we have many ACS schools and they are forever popular. There must be something right they have done.

I am sure all of us hope that the new Minister of Education, Mr Heng can do something to change the out-dated registration system for the better otherwise it is just a time bomb waiting to explode!

[Jas007]

benten2011:

Come on don't be dishearten my fellow singaporean. I am confident they will change the system next year after reviewing the data from these year. Fingers crossed :xedfingers:

for the sake of those who have yet to go thru P1 registration (next year and beyond) ... i hope your confidence pays off

for those in my boat, next year is already a year too late ...
this year's policy of appeasing true blue Singaporeans by giving us that extra balloting slip should never have been passed fit ...
we should have been given first priorities over New Citizens, PRs, and foreigners

having gone thru P1 reg this year, i now truly understand and can feel what last year's applicants really went thru when there was NO advantage of being Singaporeans when it comes time to choosing a school in your country over foreign imports .