S'poreans to get priority for P1 places during balloting

[janet88]

phtthp:

One suggestion was to give more priority to children living nearby, but that 'favours the rich who can afford to buy or rent', he said. Alumni would also be up in arms if the phase that allows their children to get in was scrapped.

'I don't think you can solve all the issues. Popular schools will still have more Singaporeans who want to go there than places,' said Mr Lim. 'It's really not easy to decide which phase to cut.Something's got to give.'

it's definitely not easy for govt to decide which phase to cut without getting shot...the decision to give priority to Singaporeans may hit S'pore to some extent. But looking after needs of SC is most important at this point.

[dorisp]

janet_lee88:

it's definitely not easy for govt to decide which phase to cut without getting shot...the decision to give priority to Singaporeans may hit S'pore to some extent. But looking after needs of SC is most important at this point.

Well said.

[Chikadilly]

Why so many think that this will trigger a wave of PRs applying for citizenship for their kids? ( well, this is the kiasu forum, maybe that's why :)) . I think it may result in in PRs being forced to enroll into less popular schools. So some will become 'citizen' schools, and other will become 'PR and foreigner' schools. Wonder if MOE thought about this segregation happening.


I'm a PR, but my kids are citizens. Anyway was planning to send the kids to aschool next door (no history of balloting), so this does not affect me in any way.

[SandS]

Chikadilly:

Why so many think that this will trigger a wave of PRs applying for citizenship for their kids? ( well, this is the kiasu forum, maybe that's why :)) . I think it may result in in PRs being forced to enroll into less popular schools. So some will become 'citizen' schools, and other will become 'PR and foreigner' schools. Wonder if MOE thought about this segregation happening.

And what if down the road, those 'PR and foreigner' school scores better? *gasps* :siam:

[BlueBells]

Then the dynamics will shift every 6 years, maybe, and then it will be truly all schools are good schools. No?

[phtthp]

SandS:

And what if down the road, those 'PR and foreigner' school scores better? *gasps* :siam:

in future, if \"PR and foreigner\" schools score better, then it helps to work towards meeting the long term objective that \"All schools are good.\" I believe there are a number of bright PR kids from China, India, Malaysia, Hongkong, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. MOE will be glad to witness this.

Then more SG parents will flock back to such schools to enrol their P1 children, relieve the traffic jam at \"branded\", popular schools. Healthy sign!

[jtoh]

SandS:

Chikadilly:

Why so many think that this will trigger a wave of PRs applying for citizenship for their kids? ( well, this is the kiasu forum, maybe that's why :)) . I think it may result in in PRs being forced to enroll into less popular schools. So some will become 'citizen' schools, and other will become 'PR and foreigner' schools. Wonder if MOE thought about this segregation happening.

And what if down the road, those 'PR and foreigner' school scores better? *gasps* :siam:

That's good. Then all schools in Singapore will be equally good. Isn't that what MOE says? :evil:

[raysusan]

PRC woman upset with new Primary One registration rules ‘favoring’ Singaporeans over PRs


http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/prc-woman-upset-with-new-primary-one-registration-rules-favoring-singaporeans-over-prs/

[verykiasu2010]

SandS:

Chikadilly:

Why so many think that this will trigger a wave of PRs applying for citizenship for their kids? ( well, this is the kiasu forum, maybe that's why :)) . I think it may result in in PRs being forced to enroll into less popular schools. So some will become 'citizen' schools, and other will become 'PR and foreigner' schools. Wonder if MOE thought about this segregation happening.

And what if down the road, those 'PR and foreigner' school scores better? *gasps* :siam:

then you either love to hate them, or hate to love them :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[xiaostar]

Chikadilly:

So some will become 'citizen' schools, and other will become 'PR and foreigner' schools. Wonder if MOE thought about this segregation happening.

I don't know why people keep worrying about this.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, PRs can still enter popular schools if their parents are alumni or have siblings who were from that school. I studied in RGPS back in the 90s and there were plenty of non-singaporean PRs (some of them were foreigners back in primary school but have since applied for PR) in the school - malaysians, indonesians, PRCs, and I even knew one from the US and one from NZ. By 2012, some of these PRs would have kids, or will soon have kids and I highly doubt they'll have problems entering RGPS because they are alumni (I know some of them who haven't converted to SC even after 20 years). I'm sure if you add the numbers who enter through the sibling route, there'll be enough PRs/foreigners to ensure diversity. These are numbers that MOE can easily dig out from their database, they have probably done projections and realised that there is nothing to worry about.

The Straits Times has mentioned that 10% of the primary school intake are PRs and 4% are foreigners right now. I don't think this % is high enough to create a situation where there are schools which are largely \"PR and foreigner\".

Besides, even if there is a freak case where all the locals start avoiding a particular school, and all the PRs and foreigners flood that particular school. Think about it - primary school is only 6 years. Most of them would probably be going to different secondary/ITE/polytechnic/JC/university and they'll have plenty of opportunities to mix around.

Is diversity really necessary at primary school level? I'm not sure about that. Many schools in other countries are entirely homogeneous in terms of ethnicity, nationality and social class and their students still turn out perfectly fine because there are plenty of opportunities to be exposed to diversity later in life.