Why Primary One Registration is Similar to PSLE

As Baby's birth date is 8 years apart from Coco's, I didn't have the privilege of enrolling Baby at Phase 1, the phase that allows those who have existing siblings in the school to enrol without worries, at Primary One registration exercise this year.

For both girls, I had to register them at Phase 2A2, the alumni phase for alumni who didn't join the alumni association.

So after 8 years, I had to go through the tormenting and stressful exercise again.

I recall following the statistics on the school website (the school would update the P1 enrolment statistics on a daily basis like what Nanhua Primary School did this year) closely. Every day, I would try to calculate in vain the chance of Coco being enrolled in William's alma mater. Although during that time, there was no cap on the number of applicants for 2A2, I was very worried as it was a baby-boom year. The numbers at Phases 1 and 2A1 doubled those of previous years'. If the number at 2A2 also doubled, the school would go into balloting.

Every day, I would tell William that I was worried that we had to ballot. He would dismiss my worry saying that there hadn't been any balloting done at 2A2 in the history of P1 registration.

Thankfully, much to my relief, the number of enrolment at 2A2 remained similar to the previous years' and Coco got in the school without any drama.

This year, most of us were caught by surprise what the Prime Minister announced at last year's National Day Speech Rally in August, that 40 seats would be reserved for Phases 2B and 2C. As the deadline for alumni to join the alumni association, and 'upgrade' themselves to 2A1, was 30 June, those who did not join the association could not join it in time. Talk about unfairness!

But thankfully, Baby was enrolled in Coco's and William's alma mater without any drama as well.

When I look back at the whole episode, I feel that there are a few similarities between P1 registration and PSLE, something that I am not too foreign with:

1) People withhold information from one another.

I am quite certain that some people were privy to the information about the 40-seat reservation policy for Phases 2B and 2C before the Prime Minister had announced it. For some reason, this year, we saw the number of applicants at 2A1 shoot up. Historically, Coco's alma mater always had more applicants at 2A2 for the last 7 or 8 years as reflected on its website. However, this year, 2A1 had about 14 applicants more than 2A2. It was most unusual!

Then a forummer revealed that actually his alumni association had told them that there would be changes to P1 registration and he would only stand to benefit if he joined the association.

Such withholding of information reminds me of PSLE preparation when parents or children do not want to share their resources or tutors' contacts.

2) People discourage others from doing more so as to eliminate competition.

A few years ago, a mother on my Facebook asked for opinion on whether she should be a parent volunteer as a highly sought-after school in terms of the number of applicants.

Just about every single contribution asked her not to, citing different reasons. One of the reasons that stood out was: you should go for a school that is more holistic. Academic-driven ones only focus on one aspect, the academic.

It is quite similar to how others telling one that certain tuition centres are no good during PSLE preparation, and so should not go for tuition at those centres, or those who professed 'I never study at home' who happen to do very well in tests and exams.

Then, this year, it surprised me that many mothers enrolled their P1-going children at top schools or very good schools!

The poor mother who had asked for opinion could not get a place for her child at the school she had given up her parent-volunteer opportunity at. In the end, she had to register her child at Phase 2C Supplementary, a phase for those who didn't manage to get in their preferred at earlier phases, whether it was based on connection or distance. It meant that she would have lost out on schools that were generally more popular with parents. It also meant that her choice of schools would be limited.

This is similar to PSLE preparation where children who believe that their friends who 'never study' could really end up not studying, or not studying as hard as they should. In the end, these children realised that their friends had not been telling the truth all along when results were released, but it's all too late.

3) People would do anything and everything to increase their chance to do better than their competitor.

At P1 registration, I was surprised to hear from a colleague that at her husband's school, which happened to be Coco's alma mater, more than 20 teachers have children who are due to register for P1 in 4 years' time, which is the dragon year.

More often than not, newly transferred teachers at this school have young children waiting to enter a primary school.

It gives me insight on what even teachers would do to up their chance at P1 registration.

When I was intensely worried about Baby's P1 registration, the same colleague told me that her husband had mentioned that the principal at his school was very busy those few days. She was busy meeting parents. Parents were walking in and out of the principal's office and asking a favour from the principal ie. to make their children's entry to the school certain.

The principal was kept so busy that she decided to put a stop to it. She sent an email to the whole school asking the staff not to entertain parents' request to meet the principal!

At PSLE, we see the ugly faces of parents and students when they suddenly become oral or composition experts, foretelling what their friends say or write would warrant a 'fail', so that it could affect their friends' morale during PSLE.

4) People feel that the process is 'unfair' to them.

I do not need to say more about P1 registration. Parents in phases 2B and 2C feel that it is unfair that the alumni applicants are not capped at a number while they are left with the remaining 'unwanted' seats. A lot of reasons and arguments are shouted out by the 2B and 2C parents to rationalise why the alumni should get lost from their alma maters, whether they are self-serving or selfish does not matter.

At PSLE, parents feel that it is unfair when oral topics are easier for the earlier or latter group of students. The mainstream students' parents feel that it is unfair that GEP students only need to hit 250 as T-score to qualify for the EESIS award while the mainstream students had to meet the higher T-score of  more than 260. The mainstream students' parents also feel that it is unfair that the GEP students are more sought-after by top schools during the DSA (Direct School Admission) than the mainstream students.

5) People get jealous of others who get a better school or result.

It is especially blatant or obvious when you visit a P1 registration thread on kiasuparents forum. The sense of jealousy is emitted strongly when those 2B and 2C parents do not want co-existence with the 2A (alumni) parents. They want elimination of Phase 2A so that they have the popular schools for themselves.

A mother who was a parent-volunteer on my Facebook used words like 'disgusted' to describe the alumni, knowing that I placed my child in a popular school at the alumni phase. It turned out that she was having a hard time during P1 registration. It sounded like jealousy to me.

Jealousy over better T-scores at PSLE, and subsequently enrolment at better schools need no elaboration. A mother whose child got into a good girls' school insisted that her child's school was on the same footing as the top girls' school, and constantly compared the two girls' schools and concluding that both were similar in their academic achievements also tells me the mother was jealous of my child getting into a better school despite being better in her T-score than her daughter's by fewer than 10 points.



It was not a conscious effort to type out a list of similarities between P1 registration and PSLE. Perhaps it is because I had gone through PSLE 1.5 years ago. Coupled with the intense P1 registration I went through this year, I have fairly strong feelings about both processes. The list just came out like that as I typed, one point after another.

Both are high-stake processes which parents who bother about their children's studies would be very concerned with. My wish for these processes would be that there could be more sharing and genuine opinion to be given when asked, the way you hope someone else would share with you or give you when you solicit for help or opinion. Both processes are stressful on their own. We really don't need to create enemies or competitors out of our acquaintances or friends while going through them. But judging from the fact that most of us can't be happy for another when another does better or have a better situation, I think we have a long way to go.