P1 registration strategy based on home-to-school distance [2018 edition]

Mention that a property is within 1km of a well-known school, and it will instantly command a price premium. This is because, in Singapore, the Ministry of Education (MOE) offers priority to parents who live within 1km of a school during the yearly Primary One (P1) registration exercise. The MOE P1 registration occurs in phases, and the distance-based priority criteria only applies to Phase 2A(1) to Phase 2C Supplementary.

It’s important to note that, for a child to gain priority admission into a school through the home-school distance criteria, he or she is required to live at the address used for registration for at least 30 months from the date of the commencement of the P1 registration exercise. For P1 registration, Singapore Citizen (SC) children is also given absolute priority ahead of Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) children.

With these two rules in mind, we’ll help you come up with a P1 registration strategy based on the schools that are near your home. Before getting into that, here’s a rundown of the various phases of the 2018 P1 Registration exercise, courtesy of MOE:

[If you’re viewing this on a mobile browser, you may need to rotate your device horizontally to see the full table.]

(Note: Parents of Singapore Citizen or Singapore Permanent Resident children who have not obtained a school place after Phase 2C Supplementary can request MOE to facilitate your child’s placement to a school which still has vacancies.)

Usually, for a popular school in Singapore, only 40 places will be leftover after Phase 2A(2). That is because many parents actually go out of their way to fulfill the criteria for Phase 2A(2), including volunteering for the school (some schools do not accept volunteers) or signing up as a member of their neighbourhood resident committee. The 40 places remaining — 20 for Phase 2B and 20 for Phase 2C — are places that have been specifically reserved by MOE to “ensure continued open access to all primary schools”.

Balloting and the home-school distance criteria

As long as the number of registrants in a particular phase exceeds the allocated number for the phase, MOE will conduct computerised balloting. During the balloting, priority will be given to the children living closest to the school, in the following order:

• Children living within 1 km of the school of choice.
• Children living between 1 km and 2 km of the school of choice.
• Children living outside 2 km of the school of choice.

To illustrate how balloting works, MOE has these two examples for us:

[If you’re viewing this on a mobile browser, you may need to rotate your device horizontally to see the full table.]

To find out which schools will undergo computerised balloting at the end of each registration phase, parents can refer to Primary Schools that Require Balloting. For more information on computerised balloting, click here.

Finally, onto our strategy for P1 registration

Now that we’re clear of how P1 registration and the home-distance criteria works, we can dive into our strategy of how to get in to the school of your choice, based on the various P1 registration phases starting with Phase 2A(1).

[To check vacancies at the end of each phase, access this link.]

Phase 2A(1): If you’re registering in Phase 2A(1), apply to the school that you qualify for regardless of the home-school distance. With the exception of 40 reserved places mentioned earlier, there is no cap on the number of places allocated under Phase 2A(1), and it is highly unlikely that Phase 2A(1) will go to balloting (< 0.1% chance of balloting). That is to say, you have a virtually 100% chance of a successful placement if you qualify for this phase (i.e. almost 0% chance a ballot is required).

If your child fails to get a place in Phase 2A(1) based on qualifying criteria, you can still apply for Phase 2A(2), if you qualify under that phase.

Phase 2A(2): In this phase, there is no cap on the number of places allocated, again with the exception of the 40 reserved places. The allocation will go to a ballot if the number of applicants exceed the number of vacancies for this phase.

From our statistical observation, if you’re registering in Phase 2A(2) and living within 2km of the school, you have a near-certain 99% chance of getting into a popular school as your child will be picked first. If you’re living more than 2km away and registering under Phase 2A(2), you have statistically 80% chance or higher of getting into a popular school, meaning there could be a 20% chance you’ll fail at the computerised ballot.

Phase 2B*: If you’re vying for 20 places of a popular school under Phase 2B, it becomes highly advantageous to live within 1km of the school (see below section on How do I check my home-school distance?), which would give you a high 80 to 90% chance of getting your child into the popular school of your choice.

For a child living in the 1-2km zone: Because of the limited number of places, and because the area covered by the 1-2km radius is larger than the 0-1km radius, the chances of success for applicants in the 1-2km zone fall drastically in Phase 2B. Based on past statistics for popular schools, there is a 50-50 chance of success, meaning it’s just as likely that all of the 20 places will be taken up by those living within 1km of the school. (This highlights the worth of getting a home within 1km of a popular school of your choice.)

Considering the above 50-50 chance, if you have a second or third choice school that falls within 1km of where you live, seriously consider applying for it instead of a popular school in the 1-2km radius. The rationale here is, unless the application rates for your second or third choice school are historically low (i.e. more than 70 vacancies at the end of 2A2), you might even miss out on your second and third choices altogether by the time you get to Phase 2C, which is the nightmare scenario for many parents.

For a child living further than 2km: You have a zero to 5% chance of getting place in a popular school more than 2km away from where you live (after those living nearer to school have had their go). Again, if you have a second or third choice school that falls within 1km of where you live, we’d advise applying for it first. Once that application is successful, you can no longer participate in Phase 2C.

Phase 2C: Typically, there’s wider pool of applicants for this phase than Phase 2B. If you’re vying for 20 places of a popular school under Phase 2C, living within 1km of a popular school would — historically speaking — give you a 60 to 80% chance of your child landing a place in the school. His/her chances vary depending on the demographics and population density of the area.

For a child living in the 1-2km zone: In this phase, your odds are far more uncertain and would truly depend on the demographics of your area, such as the number of residents within 1km of the school. Your child’s chance of placement for a popular school can range from zero to 60%. It’s this uncertainly that highlights the worth of getting a home within 1km of a choice school for your child.

For a child living further than 2km: Truth be told, it’s harder than winning lottery to get a place in a popular school more than 2km away in this phase (after those living nearer to school have had their go). If you have a second or third choice school that falls within 2km of where you live that still have vacancies, apply for those first to avoid failing and having to go through Phase 2C Supplementary.

Phase 2C Supplementary: If you get to this stage, you probably have missed out on your first and second choice schools. As the distance priority still applies here, we advise that you apply for any school within the 1km radius (or 1-2km, if schools within 1km no longer have vacancy) to secure a place for your child, which will save you from having your child assigned to a random school by MOE.

*If a school has more than 40 places remaining at the end of Phase 2A(2), 50% of the remaining places (including the 40 reserved places) will be allocated for Phase 2B and the other 50% for Phase 2C registrants.

How do I check my home-school distance?

Now that we’ve established a strategy that shows how living within 1km of a popular school drastically improves your child’s chances of getting into that school, here’s the official method of checking the home-school distance, courtesy of MOE.

Parents will need to access the OneMap SchoolQuery Service managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). Alternatively, they may check with the schools directly on the distance between their home and the schools.

HOW TO USE ONEMAP SCHOOLQUERY SERVICE