How far would you go to get your kid admitted into a popular primary school? These Singapore parents lied about home address during their son’s P1 registration, just so they could get him admitted into a “good” primary school in Bishan!
And the result?
Singapore parents lied about home address
According to The Straits Times, a lot of preparation went into these parents’ ‘change in home address’ plan.
In 2014, they first approached Serangoon Gardens Neighbourhood Police Post (NPP), requesting for a change of address on their ICs. They lied and gave a false Bishan contact address, and managed to update their ICs. They were in fact, living at Serangoon Gardens then.
Using these updated ICs, they managed to enroll their son into a prestigious school during Phase 2C of the 2015 Primary 1 registration exercise. Please note that, in this phase, home-school distance is given priority. Those who live within 1 km from a school are given highest priority.
The parents were successful in their plan and the child did get admission into the school.
It was only in January 2016, when the child started Primary 1 that the vice-principal realised they had been duped. He reported the matter to the police.
Parents fined heavily
On Monday, Jan 29, these parents ended up paying a heavy fine for their dishonesty.
The boy’s mum was fined $5,000 for lying about the home address to the vice-principal of the school. His dad meanwhile, was fined $4,000 for giving a false contact address to the registration officer at Serangoon Gardens NPP.
That’s $9,000 in total.
We are not sure what will happen to the boy, who is supposed to be in Primary 3 this year. According to Ministry of Education rules, a child who was successfully registered in a school based on false information will be transferred to another school with available vacancies.
More about home-school distance criteria for P1 registration
Those who live within 1 km from a school will be given priority during the primary school registration exercise in Singapore. Singapore citizens enjoy greater priority than Singapore PR.
The order of priority is: home-school distance within 1 km > between 1 km and 2 km > outside 2 km.
Parents who want their children to gain priority admission to schools based on distance should have stayed in their address for 30 months by the start of the registration exercise.
To calculate the home-school distance, you can use the OneMap SchoolQuery Service :
- Go to the OneMap website.
- Select the “SchoolQuery service”.
- Click on the “Find Schools near a building” option button.
- Enter the residential address in the “Find Location” box and click “Go”.
- Click on the desired building on the map. OneMap will generate a report with a list of schools which are within 1 km and between 1 km and 2 km from the selected building.
- Click on the printer icon in the SchoolQuery dialog box, the report will be displayed.
(Source: The Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia)
Also READ: MOE Kindergarten kids to get priority in co-located primary schools for P1 registration
