SINGAPORE - To meet the growing demand for school places in newer estates such as Tengah and Punggol, new schools will be set up in or relocated to those areas.
The Ministry of Education previously announced that Pioneer Primary School would be relocated to Tengah in 2026 and be the first primary school in the area.
On Thursday, it said that it will open or move another four mainstream schools and two special education (Sped) schools in the western and north-eastern regions of Singapore from 2026.
A new secondary school in Sengkang is expected to begin operations in 2026, followed by the relocation of Bukit View Primary School, currently in Bukit Batok East, to Bukit Batok West, about 2km away, in 2027.
A new primary school will open in Tengah, tentatively in 2028. And two years later, the relocated Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) in Tengah will begin operations with new Primary 1 pupils.
The MOE also gave an update on Thursday on its provision of school places for children with special needs, as it projects increasing demand from children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is due largely to growing awareness and early identification of the condition.
To meet this need, a fifth Sped school that serves students with ASD and who can access the national curriculum will begin operations at an interim site – the former Chua Chu Kang Secondary School in Choa Chu Kang – from 2026. The Sped school will be run by the Methodist Welfare Services together with ACS, and will move to its permanent campus in Tengah tentatively in 2031, where it will be side by side with the relocated ACS Primary.
MOE said that this will allow greater partnerships between both schools and provide more avenues for students from both sides to interact through joint activities and academic learning.
Pathlight School 3, which is currently at an interim site in the former Chong Boon Primary and Secondary School in Ang Mo Kio, will move to Punggol in 2032, to meet the needs of the population in the north-east. It will be the first Sped school in Punggol.
Both Sped schools will each eventually take in 850 students. By the 2030s, there will be 28 government-funded Sped schools run by social service agencies, up from 22 currently.
