Phases of Primary One Registration Exercise

Details like phases vacancies/balloting for 1km, 2km, Singaporean or PR etc from past Primary One Registration exercises are available.

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Category 1: Children who are Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents

Phase 1

For a child who has a sibling studying in a school of choice. All children registered under this phase will be given places in schools.

Phase 2A

For a child whose parent is a former student of the school and who has joined the alumni association as a member not later than the cut off date for that year; or whose parent is a member of the School Advisory/Management Committee.

For a child whose parent or sibling has studied in the school of choice; or whose parent is a staff member of the school of choice.

For a child attending MOE kindergartens situated within primary school compounds.

Phase 2B

For a child whose parent has joined the school as a parent volunteer not later than the cut off date for that year and has given at least 40 hours of voluntary service to the school by the cut off date for that year; or whose parent is a member endorsed by the church/clan directly connected with the school; or whose parent is endorsed as an active community leader.

Phase 2C

For a child who is ineligible for or unsuccessful in earlier phases.

Phase 2C Supplementary

For a child who is unsuccessful in gaining a place in a school of choice at Phase 2C.

Notes:

• Priority admission to a P1 place in a school will be given to children in this order:
  1. Singapore Citizens (SC) living within 1km of the school.
  2. SC living between 1km and 2km of the school.
  3. SC living outside 2km of the school.
  4. Permanent Residents (PRs) living within 1km of the school.
  5. PRs living between 1km and 2km of the school.
  6. PR living outside 2km of the school.
• Should the number of applications exceed the number of vacancies in any phase, places will be balloted according to the following examples:

  1. School A has 80 places, but 95 registrants. The 95 registrants are divided into Singapore Citizens (SC), Permanent Residents (PR), and the distances between their schools and homes.

     Distance to school	SC registrants	PR registrants
     Within 1km	60 (admitted)	10 (balloting required)
     1km to 2km	10 (admitted)	10 (unsuccessful)
     Over 2km	5 (admitted)	0
     Total	75	20

     All 75 SCs will be admitted first. The remaining 5 vacancies will be allocated to the PRs based on their distance to school. In this case, the 10 PRs living within 1km from the school will ballot for the 5 remaining places.

  2. School A has 70 places, but 85 registrants. The 85 registrants are divided into Singapore Citizens (SC), Permanent Residents (PR), and the distances between their schools and homes.

     Distance to school	SC registrants	PR registrants
     Within 1km	40 (admitted)	5 (unsuccessful)
     1km to 2km	24 (admitted)	9 (unsuccessful)
     Over 2km	7 (balloting required)	0
     Total	71	14

     All SCs within 1km and between 1km and 2km will be admitted first (total 64). After that, SCs living outside 2km will be considered. With only 6 places remaining, the 7 SCs living beyond 2km will have to ballot for them. All PRs will not be able to get a place in this phase.

• At the end of Phase 2A, one-third of vacancies left will be allocated to Phase 2B and two-thirds to Phase 2C.

Category 2: Children who are neither Singapore Citizens nor Singapore Permanent Residents

Phase 3

For a child who is neither a Singapore Citizen nor a Permanent Resident.

Children who are Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents and who have not registered at any of the earlier phases are also eligible to register at this phase. Registration in this phase will be done on a first-come-first-served basis.

Changes to Registration Phases

From the 2022 Primary One Registration Exercise, phases 2A 1 and 2A 2 will be merged into phase 2A. The number of places reserved under Phase 2C of the Primary 1 registration exercise will double from 20 to 40. Phase 2B will continue to have 20 reserved places

The 2020 registration exercise was done online. Parents should ensure that their SingPass account is valid and the 2-Step Verification done before the Primary 1 registration exercise starts. From this year MOE will be introducing a cap on the intake of children of permanent residents.

From the 2018 Primary One Registration Exercise, children attending MOE kindergartens situated within primary school compounds will be eligible to register under Phase 2A2 of those schools.

From the 2015 Primary One Registration Exercise, a child who gains priority admission into a school through his/her distance category is required to reside at the address used for registration for at least 30 months from the commencement of the P1 registration exercise.

Starting from the 2014 Primary One (P1) Registration Exercise, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will reserve 40 places in every primary school for registrants in Phase 2B and 2C (20 places for each phase) to ensure continued open access to all primary schools.

From 2012 onwards, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will implement measures to further differentiate between Singapore Citizens (SCs) and Permanent Residents (PRs) at the Primary One (P1) Registration Exercise. When balloting is necessary in a specific phase, SCs will be given absolute priority over PRs. SCs and PRs will continue to be eligible for the same phases, and all applicants will be admitted if the total number of applicants in any phase does not exceed the number of vacancies. However, if the number of applications exceeds the number of vacancies in a specific phase, SCs will be admitted first ahead of PRs, before home-school distance is considered.