ENHANCING OUR SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE-BUILDING OF SIX NEW PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND PRIME PHASE 7

Home > Media Centre > Press Releases

16 Apr 2005

ENHANCING OUR SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE - BUILDING OF SIX NEW PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND PRIME PHASE 7

1. As part of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) continuing efforts to renew and support our schools, we will be building new schools as well as upgrading existing ones.

2. Six new primary schools will be built by 2008 and twelve schools (6 primary and 6 secondary) will be upgraded under Phase 7 of the Programme for Rebuilding and IMproving Existing Schools (PRIME).

3. These announcements were made by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Education, at Rosyth School’s 50^th Anniversary held on 16^th April 2005.

New Primary Schools

4. As part of MOE’s continuing efforts to give more resources to schools and provide teachers with more flexibility in trying different teaching approaches for better teaching outcomes, a few initiatives have been implemented. This year, the Primary 1 class size has been reduced from 40 to 30. Next year, this reduced class size will be further implemented for Primary 2. As earlier announced by Mr Chan Soo Sen, Minister of State, at the 2005 Committee of Supply debate, MOE will also provide greater infrastructural flexibility to schools by adjusting schools’ planned enrolment to free up physical capacity.

5. Partial single sessions, where Primary 3 to Primary 6 classes function in the morning, open up possibilities for better teaching and learning by making more space and time available for teachers and students. Schools will have more facilities available in the afternoon session for co-curricular activities and enrichment activities. In 2005, about 74% of our primary schools are already operating at partial single session.

6. With these initiatives, schools will have a smaller enrolment. MOE will thus build six new primary schools by 2008 to support these initiatives whilst ensuring that all our children are assured of places in school. Building of the six new schools will be done at an estimated cost of $110 million.

7. The new primary schools will be located in the new towns of Bukit Panjang, Punggol, Sembawang, Sengkang (two schools) and Woodlands. The list of new primary schools can be found in Annex A. Currently, most of the primary schools in these towns are operating with double sessions. The new schools will facilitate the implementation of partial single session for the existing schools in these towns.

PRIME Phase 7

8. Twelve schools will be upgraded under PRIME Phase 7 from 2006-2008. They will have more classrooms and be fitted with new or upgraded facilities including computer laboratories, media resource libraries, IT learning resource rooms and pastoral care rooms. The list of schools under PRIME Phase 7 can be found in Annex B.

9. PRIME was launched in May 1999 to upgrade all schools to the latest standards so as to provide a conducive learning environment for our students. Estimated to cost $4.5 billion, this programme is implemented in phases. To date, 210 schools have been included in the earlier six phases of PRIME. Of these, 173 schools have completed their redevelopment.

10. More information on PRIME can be obtained from the PRIME website at http://www/moe/gov/sg/prime/ or the MOE Customer Service Hotline at tel. 6872 2220 (during office hours).

ANNEX A

NEW PRIMARY SCHOOLS

S/N	New Primary School	Location
1	At Bukit Panjang Site 7	Along Bukit Panjang Ring Road
2	At Punggol Site 5	Along Edgedale Plains
3	At Sembawang Site 11	Along Admiralty Link
4	At Sengkang Site 9A	Junction of Anchorvale Road and Anchorvale Drive
5	At Sengkang Site 15	Along Compassvale Link
6	At Woodlands Site 38	Junction of Champions Way and Woodlands Avenue1

ANNEX B

SCHOOLS UNDER PRIME PHASE 7

S/N	School	Town	Plans
7	CHIJ (Katong) Pr	Bedok	Hold at former Fengshan Pr site at 305 Bedok North Road from Jun 2006 to Jun 2008 during upgrading.
8	Commonwealth Sec	Jurong East	Hold at former Yuqun Pr site at 571 Jurong East Street 24 from Jun 2006 to Dec 2008 during upgrading.
9	Dunman High	Kallang	Hold at former Raffles Junior College site at 53 Mount Sinai Road from Jan 2007 to Dec 2008 during upgrading.
10	Ghim Moh Pr	Queenstown	Schools will merge in Jan 2009 at new site at Tanglin Halt Road*.
11	New Town Pr	Queenstown
12	Maha Bodhi School	Geylang	Hold at former MacPherson Sec site at 107 Circuit Road from Jan 2007 to Dec 2008 during upgrading.
13	Manjusri Sec	Geylang	Relocate to new site at Ubi Avenue 1* in Jan 2009.
14	Ngee Ann Sec	Tampines	Upgrade on site from Jun 2006 to Dec 2008.
15	Pei Tong Pr	Clementi	Hold at former Clementi North Pr site at 5 Clementi Avenue 6 from Jun 2006 to June 2008 during upgrading.
16	Peixin Pr	Yishun	Upgrade on site from Jun 2006 to Dec 2008.
17	Whitley Sec	Bishan	Hold at former First Toa Payoh Pr and Sec sites at 430 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 from Jun 2006 to Jun 2008 during upgrading.
18	Yuan Ching Sec	Jurong West	Upgrade on site from Jun 2006 to Dec 2008.

* Official addresses not available yet.