Primary 1 Registration: What Parents Need To Know About Primary School Balloting

Given the volume of applicants this year, there is a high chance that you may have to go through balloting at the school of your choice. It’s a process that is set in motion when applications exceed vacancies and can be a confusing. 

To help you in picking the right school for your child, we'll take a look into the primary school balloting history in Singapore as well as current vacancies and balloting updates for this year's Primary 1 Registration Exercise. 

This year there are a total of 41,888 places available within 181 primary schools in the registration process, with the assumption that every child in the country will be allotted a place in one of the schools.

But even if every child in Singapore does get a place in a primary school, primary school balloting history shows that some schools are likely to get oversubscribed at each registration phase.

We'll take you through a list of primary schools that are most likely to be full at each phase, so you can make an informed decision on where to register your child. 

Primary School Balloting History In 2020

As stated before, primary school balloting takes place when the number of applications exceed the vacancies available in a school, which has happened frequently in the history of past registration exercises.

According to a study by The Straits Times, 6 to 10 percent of primary school applicants have to undergo more than one phase before they can finally secure a spot in a school.

To check how many places in schools were taken up under the different P1 registration phases, ST's team of data analysis looked into data from the last 15 years. Their findings reveal that in 2020, about 19 schools had more than half of their places filled by the end of the first phase of registration. They also found that most schools required balloting by Phase 2C, which is known to be the most competitive phase in the exercise.

Here is a list of primary schools that were quickly filled up at each registration phase in 2020. This list is based on their primary school balloting history:

Source: The Straits Times

Primary School Vacancies And Balloting In 2021

If you suspect that you might go through balloting, aside from looking into the primary school balloting history, it would also help to check out updates on the vacancies and balloting for this year's P1 registration process.

But before looking into the vacancies available, here a few things to note:

• MOE will be reserving 40 places in each school for Phases 2B and 2C (20 places each)
• The remaining places will be split equally between Phases 2B and 2C when Phase 2A(2) ends
• When at the end of phase 2B and there are still vacancies left, the remaining places will be carried forward to Phase 2C

As of Monday (5 July), here are the available vacancies for Phase 1 of this year's registration exercise in all 181 schools: 

Source: MOE

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