Parents say new P1 rules widen school options but disrupt plans for alumni, families who moved homes

SINGAPORE – Changes to the Primary 1 registration exercise from 2027 have prompted parents to rethink school choices, with some now considering schools that were previously out of reach.

Families without prior links to schools nearby now stand to benefit from more places, after the Education Ministry announced on Sept 10 that 60 places will be reserved for Phase 2C, up from 40 currently.

The increase in Phase 2C spots applies to schools with intakes of 180 or more Primary 1 pupils.

But parents who had moved homes to get their children into popular schools said the latest changes have disrupted plans they had made years in advance, particularly for those targeting schools in the Bukit Timah area.

For marketing specialist Janice Lim, 40, the increased number of spaces in Phase 2C could help her five-year-old son secure a place in Hong Wen School, a five-minute walk from their home.

The family had applied for the school in the same phase for their daughter in 2025, but were unsuccessful.

“We thought it would be good for our girl, given its emphasis on Mandarin. But we were out-balloted at Phase 2C,” she said, adding that her daughter is now studying in another school nearby.

Though the changes do benefit them, Lim and her husband know there could be other roadblocks, as the school has faced balloting in Phase 2C in previous years.

“There has been quite a few BTO developments in our estate in recent years, so this change may be mitigated by a potentially larger pool of applicants who live within 1km of the school,” she said.

A new two-track system for 12 schools, including the popular Nanyang Primary School in Bukit Timah and Tao Nan School in Marine Parade, will be implemented from the 2027 registration exercise.

Under this scheme, half of the Phase 2C places at these schools will be for children living within 2km of the school, and the other half for those living farther away. These 12 schools were chosen by MOE as they are located in neighbourhoods where public housing makes up less than 40 per cent of homes within 2km of the school.

This is significantly lower than the national average, in which about four in five of Singapore’s resident population live in public housing.

House move a wrong move?

Elizabeth Chan, 35, bought a condominium in Bukit Timah in August 2026 within 2km of Raffles Girls’ Primary School, in preparation to register her three-year-old daughter for Primary 1 in 2029.

Chan said she chose RGPS for its strong academic track record and emphasis on character and holistic development. RGPS is one of the 12 identified schools.

She said the changes came as “a shock”, particularly for families like hers who have no prior ties to the school and had moved in the hope of securing a place through Phase 2C.

In 2026, RGPS had 128 applicants for 137 vacancies in Phase 2C.

Under the new rules, the spots available for families like hers who live within 2km of the school would be halved to 69 spots, possibly resulting in tighter competition.

“I feel quite blindsided,” said Chan, a doctor who works part-time. “If we had known this last month, we may not have bought the property.”

But she said the choice of school was not “the single most important factor” in her daughter’s education. The school’s values and environment were also important considerations, she said.

Charmaine Tan, 42, who has two daughters aged two and four, had planned a similar move. The family had been renting a condominium unit in River Valley for five years and will be moving to a new one in Bukit Timah in October.

She had hoped to live within 1km from the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS), also one of the 12 schools to implement the new two-track system.

With places for families living within 2km halved at Phase 2C, she said they would have considered other neighbourhoods like Joo Chiat, where there are more girls’ schools.

Tan, who works part-time at a start-up, said she had heard about SCGS through her friends who are alumni of the school, and whose daughters study there too. “They had great things to say about it, especially about the teachers and school leaders,” she said.

To improve her chances of securing a spot for her daughter, Tan said she intends to apply to be a parent volunteer there. If unsuccessful, she will monitor the vacancies available between RGPS and SCGS, before deciding which to apply to in Phase 2C.

For Jasmine Lin, 37, her main priority when applying for a school for her daughter in 2026 was convenience.

Though she is an alumnus of Mee Toh School, which is popular in the Punggol area, it is quite a distance from her home in Hougang. Her daughter eventually secured a place through Phase 2C in Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ school, located just behind their home.

“School bus fees are very expensive, and they will keep climbing. Apart from that, I think the commute with my kids in the morning is quite precious, especially as they are growing up,” said Lin, who runs a pre-school.

When she applies for a primary school in the future for her son, who is now one year old, she said she will look for a co-ed school nearby.

“The question is, what is the purpose of education. The teachers and schools do play a huge role in educating children, but so much of it also lies on the families,” she said.

More options to consider

Jason Tan, a professor at the National Institute of Education (NIE), said the varied reactions of parents to the changes reflect the difficulty of balancing different criteria, such as social mixing, recognising alumni contributions, convenience for families and giving parents greater choice.

“Some of these objectives may not always be mutually compatible,” he said.

For example, he said, giving priority based on distance or alumni ties may, at times, work against greater social mixing, which MOE said was one of the objectives of these changes, alongside widening access to schools.

While the impact of the changes will vary across schools, NIE’s Tan said he hoped the changes would not lead to greater parental anxiety or more elaborate strategising.

“Ironically, when you open up more choices, in a way you are asking parents to include even more in their decision-making,” he said.

A mother, who wanted to be known as Ang, said her husband is an alumni of ACS Primary, which will move to Tengah in 2030. The school will be more than 2km away from their current home in Plantation Acres.

The 33-year-old dance teacher said her two-year-old son is due to register for Primary 1 in the same year the school begins operations at its new campus.

The family had hoped to secure a spot through Phase 2A, but with fewer places in earlier phases, Ang said she feels “a little more anxious” about her son’s chances under the phase, which is meant for alumni priority.

She thinks that entry to the school will become more competitive when it becomes co-ed from 2030.

“The pool of children who can apply will naturally become bigger,” Ang said, though the school will have a larger intake as the Tengah campus is bigger.

Still, she understands the need to give more places to Phase 2C applicants. “For us, it is a bit of mixed feelings,” she said, adding that the family is also considering Pioneer Primary, a stone’s throw away from their home.

Kelvin Seah, an associate professor from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Economics, said the two-track scheme “weakens the strong role that residential location currently plays in determining access”.

One possible effect is that parents may consider a wider range of schools, he said. For the 12 schools under the new scheme, families living beyond 2km will have a more credible chance of admission, Seah said, and some parents who previously would not have considered these schools may decide to enter the applicant pool.

But he expects some pushback from alumni parents, parent volunteers and members of affiliated churches or clans, who may face lower chances of admission under earlier phases such as 2A and 2B.

He added that with the reduction of places to make room for 20 more spots in Phase 2C, more schools would have to ballot.

In the 2026 exercise, 31 schools went through a ballot at Phase 2A. If the new changes had been in place, 27 more schools could have faced the prospect of a ballot.

Chan said she is now reconsidering her choice of RGPS for her daughter. She may consider applying to other schools in the area if her house is just outside the 2km radius, she said.

“It might actually give us more chance of entering some of the schools,” she said, adding that she and her husband plan to watch how the balloting exercise unfolds in 2027 before making a decision.

Chan is also considering volunteering at a school so that her daughter can qualify for Phase 2B, to give her an earlier chance to secure a place.

Chan, who attended a “neighbourhood school”, understands the rationale behind the changes and agrees that children can benefit from having classmates from diverse backgrounds, but said she still felt disappointed about the impact on families who had made decisions based on the previous system.

Still, she said, the school her daughter attends would not determine her future.

“Family upbringing is still the most important… Wherever she ends up, I hope that she knows that she’ll be okay.”