The First Mega-Stress of the Sacred Parenthood

The news of Zoe Tay not getting a place in her school of choice despite completing 80 hours of volunteer work has gone around town.

I do not have anything against her apart from being insanely jealous of her good luck in shooting to local stardom from the 80s to 90s.

But I have to admit that I do gloat a little over her 'misfortune'. I call it the 'loser mentality': for all the riches and fame you have, you have not succeeded in commanding all to work in your favour.

Incidentally, a few days before the news broke, I was just feeling indignant over the inequality and unfairness that the rich and famous got to be parent volunteers in Coco's school, and subsequently successfully enrol their children at Phase 2B under the Parent Volunteer scheme. Even LKY himself who was not affiliated to the school in any way, got to enrol his sons into the school. Is there a phase for the Prime Minister or Members of Parliament? Or is it a hidden phase that is only known to certain people?

Alongside with the news of parents shifting near popular schools and did not get a place for their children, were some suggestions on how P1 registration process could be made simpler or less stressful.

I could not help but laughed at the suggestions. Apparently, these people did not use their brain enough before verbalising their ideas:

1) Introduce a nationwide online registration exercise that allows parents to list their top five choices of primary schools. If their children fail to get a place in any of the five choices, they should be posted to a school near their home which still has vacancies.

This idea probably comes from the joint admission exercise for 'O' level students.

Most parents actually only have one choice. I would think it even more stressful to rack my brain for 4 other choices and to try gauging which are the schools that we stand a better chance at enroling the child in.

And the idiot who suggested this probably doesn't realise that there are about 50, 000 children to allocate places to each year. I cannot imagine the amount of work the staff at the ministry have to do just to place the children.

2) Remove all the different phases and adopt an open balloting system.

William says that if this really happens, nobody will register at a school like mine, which is true. And you are talking about 50, 000 balloting lots. Of course, not one school would receive all 50, 000 lots, but I can foresee that the number of balloting lots each popular school would get would be many many times more than what they are getting right now.

It does not make sense logistically or administratively.

3) Give priority to active alumni only. Places should only be given to old boys or girls who are active in contributing to the school.

I am more inclined to agree with this one, even though William was not active in the alumni. I could still recall how apprehensive I was at the P1 registration booth, worrying that having William being an old boy would not suffice. I found it hard to believe, but was nevertheless glad, that my child could get into the school just based on a twenty-year-old report book.

But I am not complaining if I am benefiting from it.
4) Give Singaporeans priority, before the Permanent Residents.

I am surprised to read this, as I have thought that PRs do come after the locals. All my siblings and I were distributed all over the eastern part of Singapore when we were studying in primary schools because no priority was given to PRs. By the time my parents could register us for P1 places, all the places were already taken up and thus we went to six different primary schools! There were times when my father went to three different schools to pick us up after school. A check with the MOE website confirms that PRs can register for P1 places at the same phases. That leaves me wonder if my father was ill-informed about the phases.

Pro-PR argument includes 'we pay taxes too so why should we not be given the same chances as locals?' Pro-local argument would go 'we are citizens so we should be given priority.'

It's a case of 公说公有理，婆说婆有理.

5) Allocate the number of vacancies according to household income so that children from low-income family (less than $10, 000 of total monthly household income) could have a chance to attend the elite schools.

Truth is, children from low-income family would feel like misfits in these schools. As it is, Coco is one out of the two children in her class who lives in an HDB flat. She was even given a financial-assistance application form for which we would not qualify, but since there was no one else to give to, her teacher gave to her!

Children from low-income family would feel inferior to these 'elite' children. And I am almost certain they would not do as well, academically. Fact is, the rich kids receive tuition for every possible subject, when they don't really need it. Most kids in my school do not receive tuition at all, although they do need it desperately. The issue is money. I think I said it before, giftedness can be prepared when you have the money. Many of these kids go to enrichment classes since kindergarten just to be 'stretched' or 'enriched'. The exposure these children get allows them to be prepared earlier than children who don't go to such classes.

There is no perfect system, just like there isn't any perfect assessment. I suppose the P1 registration system is an evolvement from ancient of time since the founding of Singapore schools. Someone must have thought this system is already as good as it gets.

In parenthood, there are a few things that heighten stress. P1 registration is one of them. Although Coco went to her school via the 'easier' way, I could remember vividly how stressful the time was. As she is born in the Millenium cum Golden Dragon Year, the competition was especially stiff due to the sheer number of Dragon babies. I was shocked to see the number of children registered at Phase 1 (sibling phase) doubled. Then I received another shock to see the number of children registered at Phase 2A1 (alumni) doubled. I was terribly worried: we would really have to go through balloting if the number of children registered at Phase 2A2 (old boy/girl scheme) doubled too. Every day, I checked the MOE website for the number of places left to gauge if our chance was high. The rock upon my heart was only put down after I read that the number registered remained largely the same as previous years.

If for someone who registers at Phase 2A2 could be so highly stressed, what more the ones who register at Phase 2C (live near school)? I might have ended up at a mental hospital if I had decided to try registering for a place near our home. A slightly more decent neighbourhood school would see many parents balloting and vying for a few miserable places. It's scary!

Recently, a friend posted her P1 ballot slip on Facebook, saying that they could not get a place at a top neighbourhood school in Yishun despite being a parent volunteer there, but managed to get a place at a neighbourhood school near her home.

Her friends' responses to that?

'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!' 'Congrats!'

When has P1 registration become an event worthy of being congratulated for?