Primary Education

Name and Constituency of  Member of Parliament
Mdm Ho Geok Choo
MP for West Coast GRC

Question

To ask the Acting Minister for Education in view of the announcement on the reduction of student intake for lower primary classes for 70 schools,

(a) why is there a long duration to year 2014 for the other remaining schools to eventually cut over;

(b) how will the selection or registration process for students in these schools be affected;

(c) whether there will be a change in the syllabus of the lower class enrolment and, if so, how will this affect the syllabus of the other schools with a higher class enrolment;

(d) why is the reduction in class enrolment not compulsory for Government-aided, mission and dialect-related schools when these schools are getting a share of the additional 700 extra teachers and how many of these additional teachers will be allotted to these schools.

Response

In 2005, all 132 government schools will reduce their Primary One class size from the current 40 to 30.  This reduced class size will extend to Primary Two in 2006.  Forty-four out of the forty-six government-aided schools have also decided to reduce class size.  The last two schools are undergoing PRIME and have decided to defer the implementation.

2. Concurrently, schools will move towards partial single session, where the Primary Three to Primary Six classes will be in one session and the Primary One and Primary Two classes will be in the other session.  Together with the reduced class size, the implementation of partial single session will mean some reduction in Primary One places in certain primary schools.  Schools located in areas of high demand will phase in their implementation of partial single session to ensure that there will be sufficient school places for all eligible P1 students in each planning area and across the entire primary school system. 

3.  In 2005, about two thirds (65%) of all our primary schools will be able to implement partial single session or full single session.  The other one third will introduce partial single session over the next ten years.

4. It is appropriate to let the Management Boards of the government-aided schools make the decision on whether their schools should implement smaller class sizes, taking into account the impact on their intake and the needs of their respective communities.  MOE will provide them with the teacher resources similar to the government schools.  If they choose not to implement smaller classes, they can deploy these teachers in other ways to add education value for their students.

5. The introduction of smaller class size at Primary One and Primary Two, and the partial single session has no impact on the Primary One registration process or eligibility criteria for priority registration. 

6.  Schools will continue to be given the flexibility to customise their syllabus to cater to their pupils’ needs. MOE is working with primary schools to share strategies that support meaningful and appropriate learning for lower primary pupils, taking advantage of smaller class size.