Singapore’s new Primary 1 rules: Who lives around the 12 schools getting a wider catchment?

In Singapore, four in five residents live in public housing . The rest live in private housing . This is reflected in the homes around Keming Primary School in Bukit Batok, where 70 per cent of homes are public housing.

In contrast, around Raffles Girls’ Primary School (RGPS), just 5 per cent of homes within 2km are public housing – the lowest proportion among primary schools in Singapore.

RGPS is one of 12 schools that will adopt a new two-track system for Phase 2C from the 2027 Primary 1 registration exercise, aimed at widening access to schools in neighbourhoods dominated by private housing.

An ST analysis of the neighbourhoods around the 12 primary schools in Bukit Timah, Newton and Marine Parade shows stark differences in their housing mix. With public housing making up as little as 5 per cent of homes within 2km, a wider catchment could bring a different pool of families.

Across the 12 schools, public housing accounts for between 5 per cent and 37 per cent of homes within a 2km radius. This is far below the national picture, where about four in five residents live in public housing.

Compared with other primary schools, there are generally fewer housing units surrounding the 12 schools.

Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand for display.

Part of the reason is the physical landscape around these schools. Some of them are surrounded by lower-density landed housing. For others, parks or the sea take up parts of their 2km catchment, further reducing the number of homes within reach.

Vincent Chua, an associate professor from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, said the housing mix around the schools would have shaped their student populations, as distance has long played an important role in Primary 1 registration.

The 12 schools were selected by the Ministry of Education based on the housing mix around them, rather than how popular or oversubscribed.

Under the new system, the 60 places reserved for Phase 2C at each school will be split equally: 30 for children living within 2km and 30 for those living farther away.

Distance priority will not apply within either group. More places could also be available in Phase 2C if there are vacancies after earlier phases.

Chua said this could open the schools to families from a much wider area.

ST’s analysis shows how the housing mix changes once the catchment expands.

For most of the 12 schools, public housing makes up more than 40 per cent of homes within 3km, compared with less than 40 per cent within 2km.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

This means the pool of families applying from beyond 2km could look quite different from the population living closest to the schools.

While it remains to be seen how much the student mix of the schools will change, Chua said the wider catchment could reduce the advantage of living nearby and give children from different socioeconomic backgrounds more opportunities to mix.

Many of the 12 schools are also highly sought after.

Chua said their appeal can come from a combination of academic reputation, history, alumni networks and affiliations with secondary schools.

At Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), for example, some parents may be drawn not only to the primary school itself, but also to the pathway its affiliation with Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) offers.

“Material advantage, social capital and symbolic status intersect within these schools,” said Chua. This appeals to parents seeking a “total institutional package” that compounds educational and social opportunities for their children, he said.

For some families, the pursuit of a preferred school has even influenced where they choose to live.

Data from property technology platform Realsmart.sg gives a glimpse of how closely school and housing decisions can be linked.

Its co-founder Zach Tan, 36, a Singaporean software engineer based in California, said the company analysed a random sample of 19,812 questions submitted to its artificial intelligence assistant over three months in 2026. About 3 per cent were about primary schools.

Of more than 500 such questions, about half involved finding or shortlisting homes, or checking how close they were to schools.

Parents asked whether homes near particular schools were within their budgets, whether an address fell within 1km of a school and whether they should buy nearby or rent while keeping their existing home.

Since the new two-track rule was announced, Tan said users have also been asking whether they still need to move closer to a preferred school, and what they could afford if they widened their search.

Among the schools that came up most often in queries were Tao Nan School, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School and Nanyang Primary School, all three of which are among those identified for the two-track system.

The distance question

But giving families farther away a shot at these schools raises a practical question: How will their children get there every day?

Chua said public transport will be important if the wider access offered by the new system is to work in practice.

“Expanding geographical access on paper only works in practice if daily commuting is made feasible and manageable for young children and working parents,” he added.

Distance alone also does not tell the full story. A family several kilometres away with a direct MRT or bus connection could have a simpler commute than one living closer but needing several transfers.

The average school in Singapore is next to a transit point, but some of the schools implementing the two-track scheme might require more of a walk.

For example, families in Bedok South and the upcoming Bayshore precinct could reach Tao Nan School, CHIJ (Katong) Primary and Ngee Ann Primary School via the Thomson-East Coast Line. The journey comprising three or four stops would take around eight minutes, excluding waiting and walking time.

The Downtown Line could similarly make Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) and Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School more accessible to families living near Bukit Panjang MRT station. Even though the homes are 5km to 6km away, the four or five stops in the train journey would take only 10 to 12 minutes, excluding waiting and walking time.

But not all 12 schools are as well-connected.

St Margaret’s School (Primary), Raffles Girls’ Primary School, Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) and Nanyang Primary School are farther from their nearest transit node than the average primary school in Singapore.

For children travelling from outside the neighbourhood, that extra walk could add to an already longer journey to school.

在新加坡，五分之四的居民居住在公共房屋中，其余居民居住在私人房屋中。武吉巴督的克明小学周边地区也体现了这一点，那里70%的房屋都是公共房屋。

相比之下，莱佛士女子小学 (RGPS) 周围 2 公里范围内的房屋中只有 5% 是公共住房——这是新加坡小学中比例最低的。

RGPS 是 12 所将在 2027 年小学一年级注册活动的第二阶段 C 部分采用新的双轨制的学校之一，旨在扩大以私人住宅为主的社区的入学机会。

《海峡时报》对武吉知马、纽顿和马林百列12所小学周边社区的分析显示，这些社区的住房构成存在显著差异。在方圆2公里内，公共住房仅占房屋总数的5%，因此扩大招生范围可能会吸引更多不同类型的家庭。

在这12所学校中，方圆2公里内的公共住房占比在5%到37%之间。这远低于全国平均水平，全国约有五分之四的居民居住在公共住房中。

与其他小学相比，这12所学校周围的住宅单元普遍较少。

为了便于显示，数字四舍五入到千位。

部分原因是这些学校周边的自然环境。有些学校周围是低密度住宅区。另一些学校则被公园或海洋占据了其2公里招生范围内的部分区域，进一步减少了附近可供居住的房屋数量。

新加坡国立大学社会学与人类学系副教授蔡文森表示，学校周围的住房构成会影响学生群体，因为距离长期以来在小学一年级入学注册中起着重要作用。

教育部选择这 12 所学校时，考虑的是学校周围的住房构成，而不是学校的受欢迎程度或招生人数是否过多。

在新制度下，每所学校为 2C 阶段预留的 60 个名额将平均分配：30 个名额给居住在 2 公里范围内的儿童，30 个名额给居住在更远地方的儿童。

两组申请人均不适用距离优先原则。如果前几阶段结束后仍有空缺，第二阶段C也可能提供更多名额。

蔡先生表示，这可能会让来自更广泛地区的家庭有机会入学。

ST 的分析表明，随着服务范围的扩大，住房结构会发生怎样的变化。

对于这 12 所学校中的大多数来说，3 公里范围内的公共住房占比超过 40%，而 2 公里范围内的公共住房占比不到 40%。

百分比四舍五入到最接近的整数。

这意味着，居住在学校两公里以外的申请家庭群体可能与居住在学校附近的家庭群体有很大的不同。

蔡先生表示，虽然学校的学生构成会发生多大变化还有待观察，但扩大招生范围可能会降低住在附近的优势，并让来自不同社会经济背景的孩子们有更多机会交流。

这12所学校中，有很多都是非常热门的。

蔡先生表示，他们的吸引力可能来自于学术声誉、历史、校友网络以及与中学的联系等因素的综合作用。

例如，在英华小学（初级部），一些家长可能不仅被小学本身所吸引，也被它与英华中学（巴克路）的联系所提供的途径所吸引。

蔡先生表示：“物质优势、社会资本和象征地位在这些学校中交织在一起。” 他说，这吸引了那些希望为子女提供“全方位教育体系”的家长，他们希望子女能够获得更多的教育和社会机会。

对于一些家庭来说，为了让孩子进入理想的学校，甚至影响了他们选择居住的地方。

来自房地产科技平台 Realsmart.sg 的数据表明，学校选择和住房选择之间的联系有多么紧密。

该公司联合创始人、现年 36 岁的新加坡软件工程师 Zach Tan 表示，该公司分析了 2026 年三个月内提交给其人工智能助手的 19,812 个随机样本问题。其中约 3% 的问题与小学有关。

在 500 多个此类问题中，大约一半涉及寻找或筛选房屋，或者查看房屋与学校的距离。

家长们询问特定学校附近的房屋是否在他们的预算范围内，某个地址是否在学校 1 公里范围内，以及他们应该在附近买房还是租房，同时保留他们现有的住房。

Tan表示，自从新的双轨制政策公布以来，用户们也一直在询问他们是否仍然需要搬到离心仪学校更近的地方，以及如果扩大搜索范围，他们能负担得起什么。

在查询中出现频率最高的学校包括道南小学、培华长老会小学和南洋小学，这三所学校均被列入双轨制学校之列。

距离问题

但让较远地区的家庭有机会进入这些学校，却引出了一个实际问题：他们的孩子每天如何去上学？

蔡先生表示，如果新系统提供的更广泛的服务要在实践中发挥作用，公共交通将至关重要。

他补充说：“从纸面上扩大地理覆盖范围，只有在确保幼儿和上班族父母的日常通勤可行且易于管理的情况下，才能在实践中发挥作用。”

单凭距离并不能说明全部问题。住在几公里外，但有直达地铁或公交线路的家庭，通勤可能比住在附近但需要多次换乘的家庭要方便得多。

新加坡的学校平均都靠近交通枢纽，但一些实行双轨制教学的学校可能需要步行更远的路程。

例如，勿洛南区和即将建成的海湾滨海区居民可以搭乘汤申-东海岸线前往道南小学、圣婴女校（加东）小学和义安小学。全程三到四站，大约需要八分钟，不包括候车和步行时间。

同样，市区线的开通也能让居住在武吉班让地铁站附近的家庭更容易送孩子去卫理公会女子小学和培华长老会小学。虽然这些学校距离地铁站有5到6公里，但乘坐地铁四五站只需10到12分钟，还不包括候车和步行时间。

但并非所有12所学校的联系都如此紧密。

圣玛格丽特小学、莱佛士女子小学、英华小学和南洋小学距离最近的交通枢纽比新加坡普通小学更远。

对于住在社区外的孩子来说，这额外的步行路程可能会使他们原本就较长的上学路程更加漫长。