Any Foreign kid got to Local School (2022)

[Lisafuller]

At least one reason the cost has been ratcheted up is to spur more citizenship applications. Part of the “sharper differentiation” policies, and partly intended to make Singaporeans feel like they benefit from being a citizen… but most I’ve talked to didn’t even know this change occurred, because the fees haven’t changed for them.

Obviously, this is bound to have some unintended consequences, here are a few off the top of my head:

- newly arrived families/would-be targets for future citizenry, can’t stomach the costs and bounce or just refuse move here

- the number of foreign students attending local schools has dropped, breeding a more insular future generation, less at ease in the global workplace

One potential plus side (maybe), they have been able to consolidate schools, decreasing the number of teachers needed, allowing (in theory) more quality with less quantity.

Maybe have some deeper thoughts about all of the circumstances involved when a school is closed or merged or what else can happen besides closing/merging schools. Perhaps you will find the following surprising:

Number of Primary Schools:
2012 = 175 (registration in 2011, the last year before certain rules were changed)
2023 = 182

Do you have any statistics or statements that show the number of foreign students in the local schools has declined? Just because foreign students are no longer guaranteed a spot in the P1 registration system doesn't necessarily mean there are fewer foreign students in the schools (number or as a % of the cohort). There are other avenues to admit foreign students and the success rate when applying for a space does not itself tell you how many were admitted.

Further, I wonder if some people could be mixing up the fact that certain people cannot get their child admitted to the school(s) they want vs. whether the total number (or mix) of students admitted (via all channels and to possibly a different group of schools) has changed?

There have been public figures released about the mix of students, both a decade plus ago and in recent years. I would agree that these figures do not tell the precise number of foreign students admitted in any year (is the figure exactly the same or has it declined at all?). However, they do indicate that the mix has been stable.

I don’t have data, but I do know that many schools here used to have dual sessions, and I believe most have moved to single session - that effectively cuts the number of seats available as much as half. The best stat would be total seats available, and how that has changed.

I believe this is true. Don't think it has reduced the number of seats available that significantly though.

[therat]

during 80s, primary and secondary have class size of 44/45
primary has morning class and afternoon class from Pri 1 to Pri 6.

Few yrs back, MOE reduce the class size to 33-36. So that the teacher can spend abit more time on every students. and move to single session.
i believe now most school is in single session unless they restricted by the school building size.

[BeeKayEss]

Ok, so we just got the result and we have been offered a local school which is almost 15 kms away. I have been checking the status of our neighbourhood school and they had vacancies, but still we couldnt get through there. My kid was in a private pre-school with majority of local kids and we could see he was thriving and hence decided that we wanted local school for his primary education also.

thanks for all the inputs

On the off chance that you don't get in closer, are you going with the 15km school or will you pursue other options?

No, we will pursue this for now as we had strong feeling to go for local school

[boredahjossii]

My kid was able to get a local school spot during Phase 3 registration. It is just very near, around 100 meters from our rented HDB.
The key is to study the previous year's balloting results. You need to identify which areas and which schools has more remaining slots to offer during Phase 3 registration.
Then I became strategic and move to this area two years before my kid will turn P1.
K1 & K2 were in PCF Sparkletots to show that we are willing to integrate on the local school system.
Don't know if that helps, but three of my friends did it and we are all successful.
There is no really guideline on how to achieve this but we just tried the most possible logical way we can get it. And perhaps you can also include prayers and luck.

This may increase the chance of your kids getting into local school, but there is no guarantee to that. In my case, my son also have his K1 & K2 in PCF Sparkletots, and the school that is located the closest to our place historically had a lot of available quotas in previous years. But suddenly for this year all the quotas are taken up during phase 2C.

Even after that, there are 2 more schools within our neighborhood that still has slots, but we are only offered a place in a school that is located 12km away

Sorry to hear that. Are you taking it? I guess you don't have much of a choice.

You're right, we don't really have much choice. Beggar cannot choose, so we are going to take it.

[malcontent]

You're right, we don't really have much choice. Beggar cannot choose, so we are going to take it.

Everyone has a choice, but few realize or fully exercise it.