From 2024, streaming in secondary schools will come to an end, and students of different levels of abilities, who would previously have gone to different streams, may be put in the same class.

Some better-off parents may baulk at the thought of their children sharing the same classroom as children who previously would have been eligible only to enter the Normal streams.

These parents may look instead at putting their children into schools that offer the Integrated Programme (IP) or schools that offer only subjects taught at the G3 level.

This will intensify the fight for places in these schools.

We cannot stop parents from steering their children towards schools which they deem most beneficial, but we certainly can and should take steps to avert a stampede for IP and single-stream schools.

Raymond Han