Jumping into the kiasu parents fray...

24 hours ago, I finally decided to sit down in front of my computer and read up on Primary School registration information in Singapore. What triggered my interest was a discussion on Aug 2009 mummies' Facebook page about "Understanding The Singapore Primary School Registration Processes", which made me feel completely clueless as I had zero knowledge about it before blogging about it right now.

Just a few days back, I was talking to my mother-in-law about how fierce the competition is and how kiasu our Singaporean parents are in terms of pre-school education for kids. More and more parents with kids at Renzo's age are spending 1-2k a month on branded childcare centers for their precious ones. And without any doubt, those parents are definitely willing to and trying to do whatever they can, in order to enroll their kids to the best primary schools. She (my MIL) casually mentioned about putting Renzo to Win's primary school - Qiaonan that is 5 minutes away from her house which, I agreed silently.

But now, the game has changed!
It was to my biggest surprise to find out that Qiaonan seems to be ranked 170+ out of our <200 primary schools in Singapore. True that I am not an advocate of school ranking system but, it still bothers me a bit after knowing this fact. Then I started to look at other possible options for Renzo. I told Win, the reason is simple, I do not want Renzo to crack his head like us 30 years later, just to figure out which school our grandchildren can go to. Although we can't promise him the best, at least we should try out best to leave a better option for him in the future. And here are some pretty useful information I found online for those "blur" mummies like me:

REGISTRATION PHASES
Here's a diagram I found on kiasu parents site, that illustrates 7 phases of registration exercise:
Obviously, we could only look at Phase 2B onwards since Qiaonan is out of picture by now. So the next question is, should we enroll Renzo based on our new address or my in laws' address?

DISTANCE PRIORITIZATION
Here comes the next highest priority for our selection, distance..
It's so ironic that before we sold our old HDB flat, we had 3 schools within 1km distance to our house and out of the 3, 2 of them are the most popular primary schools in Pasir Ris. But now, none of these 2 are near to our new house.

And to find out nearby schools, go to www.onemap.com.sg, enter your postal code, click on "free map based services" menu and select "school query" to find out schools within 1km and 2km from your house.
For us, if we search based on my in laws address in Tampines, we have:
<1km:
Changkat / Tampines / Yumin / Chongzheng / Griffiths / and of course, not to forget, Qiaonan
<2km:
St.Hilda's / Poi Ching / Gongshang / Tampines North / East Spring

Whereas if we search based on our new address in Pasir Ris:
<1km:
Coaral / Elias Park / Park View
<2km:
Meridian /Poi Ching / Gongshang / Tampines North / Loyang / White Sands / Casurina

Those highlighted in RED are the popular schools (not purely based on ranking) and indeed we do not have any within 1km distance at both Tampines and Pasir Ris, except for Chongzheng, which becomes my first choice for Renzo immediately.

But after much readings, I have to move on and believe that registering Renzo based on our Pasir Ris address makes more sense, since we are not allowed to register him based on more than 1 address once the registration phase starts, and <2km branded schools near my in laws' place are just too competitive to get in.

PHASE 2B POSSIBLE?Well I think that's pretty difficult. I was seriously eyeing on Chongzheng and even asked my mother-in-law to find out for me on how to become a member at nearby RC. But to my dismay, the RC at her house place is not active enough for me to clock 96 hours and become a member easily. So my only choice is to work on parent volunteer job at my desired schools when being selected, well for that I have to wait till Renzo turns 4 or 5 years old, another 2-3 years to go. (You know how kiasu I am by now).

REGISTRATION STRATEGIES FOR PHASE 2B / 2C
I would highly recommend kiasu parents to scrutinize every piece of information given on these links:
Registration Processes
Enhancing Chances
Phase 2C Strategies

In a nutshell, we need to decide on:
First Choice:
- we are likely to be qualified under 2B phase
- <1km if possible or at least <2km
Second Choice:
- we are likely to secure a seat under 2C phase
- must be <1km
Third Choice:
- must be <1km
- we die die can get a seat even under 2Cs phase

Don't ask me how I came to this conclusion, I only can remember I had quite a long conversation with Win and also my sister who has been making enormous efforts to put my niece into the best school in Tampines.
First Choice:
- A popular school that is <2km, good thing is we do have a direct bus to school from our house
- Must go for parent volunteer work when Renzo gets to K1 and if we could clock 40 hours in a year
Second Choice:
- Less popular school but pretty good reputation
- Nearest to our house <1km
Third Choice:
- Not popular at all
- Next nearest to our house <1km

Of course there are a lot more strategies worth consideration such as 5 years+ balloting history of your desired school, which could give you a clearer picture and rough gauge on whether balloting is needed for the phase you are registering for. But after all, I could only manage things within my capability so sometimes, it might be rather important and worthy to prepare your kids for primary school than getting yourself on a roller coaster mood and trying your luck like praying for winning Toto..

And, this is how we are trying to get Renzo prepared... to get him to learn his alphabets as early as possible...