SINGAPORE - Children hoping to enrol in four popular primary schools are headed for a ballot after Phase 2A1 of the Primary 1 registration exercise ended on Tuesday (July 7).
CHIJ St Nicholas Girls School (Primary) has 106 pupils vying for 101 seats and Nan Hua Primary has 84 children chasing 77 places.
Rosyth School has 89 children registering for 87 vacancies while Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School has 69 children applying for 67 spots.
Balloting will be conducted for children of Singapore citizens who live more than 2km from these four schools, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) on its website. The results will be out on July 13.
Those who live within 2km of the schools have already secured places.
Phase 2A1, the second stage of the yearly Primary 1 registration exercise, is for children whose parents are members of the school's alumni association or its advisory or management committee.
A rule introduced in 2014 requires all primary schools to set aside 40 places for children in the later phases of 2B and 2C. This is why there are limited vacancies in Phases 2A1 and 2A2, which until recent years have traditionally not required balloting.
Phase 2A2, which starts on July 14, is for children whose parents or siblings are former pupils, or whose parent is a member of the school staff.
Several schools face the prospect of a ballot during this phase as they have just a handful of vacancies left for children in this group.
These schools are Ai Tong School, which has seven spots left, after 110 children applied for 117 places in Phase 2A1. Catholic High School has five remaining places, after 125 boys nearly filled 130 seats.
Other popular schools that have had a considerable number of their places taken up include Singapore Chinese Girls' Primary School, Rulang Primary School, Tao Nan School, St Hilda's Primary School, Nanyang Primary School and Anglo-Chinese School (Junior).
Registration has been moved completely online in the light of safe-distancing rules.The exercise runs from July 1 to Oct 30 in seven phases.
