Came to know that MOE has started allotting the school places… hope everyone gets a place

Called MOE and they told that they need time until end of October to get back on the outcome… So, need to wait

But, there is another way also to look at it… If the numbers are correct(which i am not sure), for me, what MOE did, makes sense and seems to be a wise move.


If they let all seats to go to phase3, I am pretty sure that there will be many schools with at-least one class with 10% or 20% or 30% filled, which is really a waste of resources and under utilization of the teaching staff.

I think may be in the first step they want to make sure that each school has students in a multiple of 30 (by reducing the total number of seats) and in the second step they may allocate the balloted out students in a multiple of 30 to few schools. Say instead of having 9 students in 10 classes each, they can have 30 students in 3 classes… saves resources for 7 classes right ?

I believe it is really not easy to predict. Because I do not think that they will add the school seats based on number of people born in 2007. Out of that number some citizen’s may leave the country for better opportunities and some citizen’s may come back (some where i read that there are 200K Singaporeans staying abroad). Some may become PR in June…Even in the case foreigners they can tentative know how many DP’s they have issued with that age group, but, as he mentioned all may not apply for the local school. It might be based on the historical data and probability of citizen’s + PR 's + foreigner DP children + other foreigners each year applying for school seats + some % additional seats

And another issue is the school terms. All the Indian international schools follow Indian school terms which is April - March unlike the local schools of Jan - December. Then the minimum age for P1. The child must be 6 years by april (or even june) instead of Jan 1st…


So, most of the foreigners who have plans of only 2-3 years in Singapore, do not prefer local schools. Because if they go back, the child will be in one class less than the same age kids in India

Roastedsquid:

The $8/K to $10/K year are the Indian schools. I met an American family whose father was planning a sabbatical at a local university and thus cannot get DP's for his kids to attend local schools. He approached these Indian schools because they are the only ones they could afford and he was actively discouraged stating the schools systems really follows the India model and was not appropriate for kids from other countries. The more western international schools are $21K+ and up. And that number doesn't include registration, books, and other fees.

Yes, as far as i know from my colleagues, these schools hardly have any other nationals (may be nil). If there are only 1-2 kids of other nationals, then it may be difficult for the kids also to get adjusted in those schools. The syllabus being followed is mostly Indian primary syllabus (it is called CBSE) which is approved by MOE

phtthp:

quote:

For this year's P1 registration, all 42,580 P1 places are filled, except for 700+ foreign frens' kids, which is only about 1.6 - 1.8% shortfall in the golden piggy year cohort. With 1504 places left for Phase 3,the nos. show that 1500+ foreign kids got places thru earlier Phases. (new SC or PR kids not born in Sg?)

As pointed out, Gov sch is not exactly cheap, at $6k /yr. The less costly intl schs start at $8-10k /yr which is reasonable. Sg is an Educ Hub, so our foreign frens have a choice, even to goto UWC at $30k/yr. They should not be too critical of the host nation. The 700+ kids will eventually find places at private schs n we wish them well.

Curious...
Can name some of those less costly international schools, say that start around $8k or $ 10 k, per year?

$30k per year is ex.
Think $8 or $10k per year, may be more affordable to some parents.

For Indian schools :

DPS : ~8K
NPS & Global Indian International : ~12K

the bus fees is ~200 per month for most of these schools (unless u stay with in 1km of the school)

These schools also have initial admission charges of 2-3K + there are separate charges for ECA / CCA which would be around 500-800 per annum

I believe we need to use the forum to give constructive suggestions for the issue and not to pass judgement or feel happy that a kid was denied (or could be denied, as so far MOE has been mentioning that they will try their level best) primary education.


Say if next year 5-6K citizen’s return home all of a sudden, then that 700+ number could be of citizen’s, forget about PR or foreigners… Then if one citizen ask to increase the seats in a class, then other citizens will not allow that to happen because the ‘quality’ will be degraded or his/her kid was balloted out from that school in the earlier phases…

Great learning about what is meant by immigrant keep it up

lukemommy:

This year's reg exercise seems too overwhelming, 700+ children without seats, I wonder only PRs/ foreigners among them or some SCs included too? ...

I would say the probability is almost nill.... Because even in phase 3 balloting, first preference is for SC then to PR and then to foreginers...