Opinions of the Primary School Registration System

[eelsemaj]

Title: Vacancies in Ai Tong School for phase 2B


Hi,

We are registering our kid for Ai Tong, under phase 2B, 1-2km.

During the registration, we started with 41 places. On the second day, the number of places suddenly became 39. Reason given by the school was that 2 places were given to families who forgotten to register during the previous phases. Also, MOE had approved this, and had directed ATS to take the places out of phase 2B, leaving the places in 2C as it was before.

Now, there are only 5 places, with 9 applicants.

We were so fed up with this move, and had written to MOE about it. Still waiting for a proper reply on this.

:x :rant:

[Bishan_Mom]

Absolutely…I was flabbergasted and angry too. I am one of those within 1-2km who went down to AiTong too, but decided not to apply as didn’t want to take the 50:50 chance. Actually, there are at least 2 who have withdrawn their applications already, otherwise, it would have been 11.


AiTong is not a full government school, as such they do have some sort of autonomy over how the school is managed, is a reason why there is the Clan affiliation too.

[starman]

My wife and me registered our son to Pei Hwa, at the start of the

Phase 2B registration the vacancies were 71 and on the second day …
they took out 2 places … and the exact same reason was given that
some parents from previous phases signed up…

This is totally absurb, I think MOE should control this kind of abnormality, it is unfair to those kids in the later stage… anyway in the end we decided
to register else where…

[eelsemaj]

Hi,


Didn’t realised that this is happening in other schools as well. This really looks bad for the ministry.

Hmmm … maybe we can collate all our details and send one big bomb to the ministry.

I have already written to my MP, and will be going for the "meet-the-people" session tonight. This is going to be at Bishan North.

Anyone wanna come join me and talk to him about this matter?

[starman]

Hi, you can quote my incident to the MP and see what he says. Anyway

for my case because of this incident it was a last minute decision…I applied and got in Phase 2B in Maris Stella High…although is quite far
but in the end I think we have made the right choice…but this incident has shown that the registration process is still NOT Transparent enough.

[eelsemaj]

Hi,


Spoke to my MP last night. He had spoken to the perm sec for MOE last Friday evening, and got a reply that this should not be the case - ie. places should not be taken out of phase 2B to satisfy applicants who had forgotten to register in earlier phases.

We are waiting for an official reply from MOE.

[caroline3sg]

eelsemaj

Someone analyse the situation as: applied for 2nd choice sch (under 2A2) to secure a place first and then call up 1st choice sch on 2nd day of 2B, if sure get in without ballot, withdraw from 2A2; after noticing some changes in 1 - 2 vacancies in 2A2 & 2B.

But we won’t be able to do a corresponding link between the 2 sch.

So Aitong case could be someone within 1km wanted this sch as first choice but unsure of balloting distance, so registered in 2A2 of 2nd choice sch. After calling sch to cfm no ballot for within 1km, apply here and withdraw elsewhere, leading to 2B reduction.

This is speculation but I guess, if many people are aware of such strategy, more would follow suit. You would see more of such cases in future as compared to this yr about 2 cases for several schs.

As this is speculation, we don’t know how true it is. Take it with a pinch of salt what Aitong said.

But then again, what happens if you are in that person’s shoes? You would want to maximise your chances, isn’t it?

[jedamum]

Although what i am going to say is not totally within this topic context, i feel that parents who had first registered in the earlier phases should be accorded lower priority than those in Phase 2C (ie put them in Phase 2C Supp) if they withdraw later. Because a lot of parents are using this strategy (check the vacancies during the last day of Phase 2C, then withdraw from registration in another school and then registered in their preferred school on the last day of Phase 2C) and hence taking away that vacancy in Phase 2B that could have been given to the unsuccessful PV parents and also increase the competition in Phase 2C.

[Red_Rhino]

Agree with Jedamum.


Actually, shouldn’t phase 2A be subjected to the same distance ruling? So, instead of giving priority to phase 2A, divide the remaining places after phase 1 equally amongst the phase 2A, 2B and 2C. In the case of popular schools like Catholic, AiTong, St. Nic, these does increase the vacancies in phase2B and 2C quite substantially. It is somehow unfair to those who stay close to the school and yet subject to balloting (or 1-2km no chance even to ballot) when someone who stays far away from the school (e.g. I’m aware of: staying in Pasir Ris, kid in AiTong, staying in Ponggol, kid in RGS, staying in Jurong, kid in Pei Chun). With the distance, parents will need to ferry the kid to school by private cars, thus causing the traffic jams along these schools.

[shaz]

Agree with Red Rhino. The applicants in 2A2 did not make the effort to contribute to the school, Clan/Church, RC and yet is almost guaranteed a place in these schools. Schools should cap the qualifying numbers of these applicants. Eg, only 10% of total intake vacancies at this phase and balloting based on distance. The remaining to be split among 2B & 2C