82 primary schools to hold ballot for Phase 2C of P1 registration
A total of 82 primary schools will hold a ballot for places in Phase 2C, the latest stage in the Primary 1 registration process.
In the 2022 exercise, 83 schools faced such a ballot in Phase 2C.
The most oversubscribed school was Princess Elizabeth Primary School in Bukit Batok, which received 283 applications for 48 places, meaning that nearly six children are vying for one spot.
Similar to previous years, Nan Hua Primary School in Clementi and Northland Primary School in Yishun were heavily oversubscribed.
Nan Hua Primary had 192 applications for 40 vacancies, while Northland Primary had 200 applications for 44 places.
Among the schools that received more applications than spots available, three will not be holding a ballot – Canossa Catholic Primary School, Jing Shan Primary School and Oasis Primary School.
This may be due to the school having enough vacancies for applicants with the same citizenship status and home-to-school distance category, so that these are all admitted with no balloting required. Priority is given to Singapore citizen children.
For Opera Estate Primary School, balloting will be conducted for permanent residents (PRs) who live more than 2km from the school in Siglap.
It is one of the schools with a cap on the intake of PRs in 2023, in a move by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to prevent any concentration of PR children in local primary schools.
According to the ministry’s website, Opera Estate Primary has reached the cap on the intake of PR children, and any remaining vacancies in Phase 2C Supplementary will only be for children who are Singapore citizens.
MOE updated the registration figures on its website on Thursday evening for Phase 2B, which ended on Aug 3.
Phase 2C is open to children who have no prior links to the school, while the earlier stages like phases 2A and 2B are for those whose parents are alumni or volunteers. Results will be out next Tuesday, and vacancies for the next stage, Phase 2C Supplementary, will also be released the same day.
Phase 2C Supplementary will run from Aug 17 to 18.
MOE made several changes to the Primary 1 registration system, including revamping Phase 2C in 2022 to increase the number of reserved spots from 20 to 40, to help keep primary schools accessible to all children.
At the start of Phase 2C this year, eight schools, including Catholic High School and CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, had just 40 places each left.
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