MOE Relooking P1 registration - Too much priority to alumni
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IDad:
Renting is fine , if and only if the renting is throughout the duration of the education .
A family's circumstance do change, eg parent's work place change, care-giver place change, financial situation change (better or worse)....like the example I have given, a young couple rents a place instead of buying because ppty price too high. Later use the address to get into the school. Some years down the road ppty price drop or family's financially stronger, decides to buy a place but can't afford the vincinty (dun laugh....maybe majority of residences are private condos) but force to buy HDB further from school. Is it reasonable to deprive this family from sending the 2 child to the same school as the older sibling? Of coz not!limlim:
I feel that, P1 priority shd be given only if the subsequent address is STILL within a given distance.. say, 2km( if address changed ), OR, the address remain unchanged. If they do not fulfill this, then, they stand in line with the others and not take advantage of the P1 priority.
This is to arrest those cases where pple rent a place to get the 1st kid in for the purpose of getting the first kid in only, and not bcoz it is for the welfare of the child.
If anything, I say do away with address or distance priority scheme totally if we are going to penalise those who rent....this will eliminate the possibility of abuses by not having the ruling there in the first place to be abused....although this is not what I'm would like to see because I think rental address is equally valid from `own address'.
Once you ve moved , shouldnt' the child also move to the school closer to the new add? This will spare not only the elder but also all the rest of the brood from travelling long distances and unnecessarily tiring out the tiny tots ?
Distinction must be made between those renting short term and genuine people who rent (because they want their child to enter the desired sch) and if so the latter is true, the duration of rent must be throughout the duration of education. Unfortunately, there happens to be more cases of people renting short-term and moving away after that. I hear of so many stories and cringe at some blatant trumpeting of how have gotten around and made a mockery of the system. Where is the justice to the poor cleaners' son or daughters who may never ever have a chance to even step foot in the hallways of these privileged schools? Never, for all doors are closed upon them. -
i agree that short term rent should be frowned upon because a 6 months or 1 year contract means that the family would move out before school starts in january or around june the following year.
for long term contract, well, most landlord would prefer a 2 year contract. i have yet to meet one landlord who is wiling to rent a place out for the same amount (or even an annual fixed & of increment) for 6 years.
even those who live in their own houses cant promise you that they wont shift to another place for the next 6 years.
if the office tea lady, admin clerk, cleaners or gardeners are employed by the school directly, they would fall under the category of staff (cant remember which phase but i think is 2a???) which automatically guarantee their child a place in the school.
1 thing i must say is how many of you would blow the whistle on your friends or even the classmate whom you know is breaking the law? it is because most of us kept quiet about it that such things keep repeating itself and on an increasing rate. -
Abit ‘off topic’.
Going by the logic that if u have moved, therefore the kid should be in another school near the new hse theory, should it also mean that ‘u should also get a job near your hse theory?’
Then maybe we might hve lesser jams on the roads n more space in the MRT with everyone working within 1km of their home!
siam before I kenna whacked in the butt! -
laughingcat:
If you are talking about self-interest and whether parents are willing to travel, well, nothing wrong with your comments.
Aiyoh. When kids are selected for GEP, the tune will be sung differently. Distance is not concern anymore, rather the reputation of the school. Look into the GEP threads and you will see parents asking around for car pool and taxi pool. :evil:
And yes, if the kid has to go to certain school for GEP, the parents are willing to accept the long distance.. that is their personal choice.
But now, we're discussing on what is the fairest system and on a national level for Primary 1 admission and what factors the policy makers need to consider when coming out with a priority system that is deemed to be in the best interest of the child and at the same time fair enough to the community as a WHOLE.
So, the debate is on whether distance should be given greater priority then connections.
Whether parents are willing to travel is not relevant.. the priority system have to be engineered to be in the best interest of the masses.
The desire to travel is their Personal choice. What is the best priority system to the general community is what we're discussing now. -
vicki:
Distance is one of the major consideration and priority when I go job hunting.... :evil: :evil:Abit 'off topic'.
Going by the logic that if u have moved, therefore the kid should be in another school near the new hse theory, should it also mean that 'u should also get a job near your hse theory?'
Then maybe we might hve lesser jams on the roads n more space in the MRT with everyone working within 1km of their home!
*siam before I kenna whacked in the butt!*
I am a good citizen as I don't contribute much to the traffic congestions......
juz joking..
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limlim:
If you are talking about self-interest and whether parents are willing to travel, well, nothing wrong with your comments.laughingcat:
Aiyoh. When kids are selected for GEP, the tune will be sung differently. Distance is not concern anymore, rather the reputation of the school. Look into the GEP threads and you will see parents asking around for car pool and taxi pool. :evil:
And yes, if the kid has to go to certain school for GEP, the parents are willing to accept the long distance.. that is their personal choice.
But now, we're discussing on what is the fairest system and on a national level for Primary 1 admission and what factors the policy makers need to consider when coming out with a priority system that is deemed to be in the best interest of the child and at the same time fair enough to the community as a WHOLE.
So, the debate is on whether distance should be given greater priority then connections.
Whether parents are willing to travel is not relevant.. the priority system have to be engineered to be in the best interest of the masses.
The desire to travel is their Personal choice. What is the best priority system to the general community is what we're discussing now.
huh, you mean we have been talking about something else :?
i thought we have been throwing out ideas all along. some a bit off topic but no harm done.
it is just which \"masses\" each belongs to and to each the best priority system that suits oneself most that people are unable to agree upon. -
vicki:
BTW, we're not talking about whether parents \"should\" choose a school near their Home..
Going by the logic that if u have moved, therefore the kid should be in another school near the new hse theory, should it also mean that 'u should also get a job near your hse theory?'
We are talking about who should be given priority......
I feel.. for the purpose of the discussion on P1 admission..
It is very important to distinguish between the two.. One is a personal choice, the other is a policy/system. -
limlim:
:goodpost: :goodpost: :goodpost:
If you are talking about self-interest and whether parents are willing to travel, well, nothing wrong with your comments.laughingcat:
Aiyoh. When kids are selected for GEP, the tune will be sung differently. Distance is not concern anymore, rather the reputation of the school. Look into the GEP threads and you will see parents asking around for car pool and taxi pool. :evil:
And yes, if the kid has to go to certain school for GEP, the parents are willing to accept the long distance.. that is their personal choice.
But now, we're discussing on what is the fairest system and on a national level for Primary 1 admission and what factors the policy makers need to consider when coming out with a priority system that is deemed to be in the best interest of the child and at the same time fair enough to the community as a WHOLE.
So, the debate is on whether distance should be given greater priority then connections.
Whether parents are willing to travel is not relevant.. the priority system have to be engineered to be in the best interest of the masses.
The desire to travel is their Personal choice. What is the best priority system to the general community is what we're discussing now. -
LOLMum:
She is talking about some parents willing to travel.. that is personal choice.. I just point that out only.
huh, you mean we have been talking about something else :?
i thought we have been throwing out ideas all along. some a bit off topic but no harm done.
it is just which \"masses\" each belongs to and to each the best priority system that suits oneself most that people are unable to agree upon.
btw,
1. Not all parents are willing to travel.
2. Not all parents are keen to put their child which they are alumni to.
Hence, alumni priority shd be below distance priority, for the greater good. -
BlueBells:
The Ministry of Education is understood to be studying how to improve the Primary 1 registration scheme, which has been criticised for giving too much priority to children with connections to the school.
It revealed the move in a letter to a school administration manager, who wrote to it late last year suggesting changes to the scheme.
In the ministry's letter, made public in an online teachers' forum, an official said the ministry was 'studying various options to improve the P1 registration framework'.
She also said any changes may take some time to be studied and implemented, as suggestions from various groups would have to be considered carefully.
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She added that the scheme aims to allocate school places according to a set of fair and transparent criteria that are in the child's educational interests.
Asked about this on Wednesday, the ministry said it reviews the P1 registration framework regularly, taking into consideration public feedback.
A spokesman added that the system was last changed in 2010 to give Singaporean citizens priority over permanent residents. The Primary 1 registration scheme underwent a major revamp in 1999 to give greater priority to parents who are active in schools.
Former students who joined their schools' alumni associations were given priority over other old boys and girls when it came to getting their children into the school. Parent volunteers had to serve a minimum of 40 hours to qualify.
There are six phases in the registration process, with siblings of children already in a school getting top priority. Next come the children of alumni, parent volunteers or those with church or clan connections.
They are followed by all Singaporeans and permanent residents, with non-citizens last in the pecking order. If any phase is oversubscribed, priority is given to those who live nearby.
Parents have complained that the later stages often end up with more applicants than available places.
Last year, close to half of Singapore's 173 primary schools had to hold ballots and there were children who could not get into schools near their homes.
Others have complained that the scheme is unfairly weighted in favour of alumni - some of whom may not play an active role in the school - and those with church or clan connections.
Some parents want more places allocated to Phase 2C, for those without any ties to the school. Others want the ministry to stop giving priority to any group, and open all places to a ballot.
But the loudest calls have been to give priority to children living closest to the school of their choice.
Two years ago, two MPs raised this suggestion in Parliament, saying that they knew of children who could not get into schools very near their homes.
At the time, the ministry said it would not change the rule as those who live within 1km of the school are already given priority. It said guaranteeing places to those who live very close by would place unnecessary constraints on the system.
Mountbatten MP Lim Biow Chuan, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, on Wednesday agreed that the phase prioritising alumni does not distinguish between parents who contribute to the school and those who are 'sleeping members' who merely joined the alumni association.
'That's something that the ministry should look at to make it a fairer system,' he said.
Six out of eight parents interviewed on Wednesday supported any move to review the scheme.
Business executive Zachary Teo, 40, said he moved to Serangoon North to be close to popular Rosyth School, but he was not sure that his two children would get in.
'It will be ridiculous if I can't get a place at Rosyth and have to send my son by school bus to a school in Ang Mo Kio or Hougang,' he said.
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