The Ministry of Education (MOE) will be building 11 new primary schools and upgrading another 28 existing schools from November 2009. This is the first phase of the ministry’s plans to enhance primary school infrastructure to facilitate the transition of primary schools to a single session, and is estimated to cost S$560 million.

Single-Session Primary Schools

In April 2009, MOE accepted the Primary Education Review and Implementation (PERI) Committee’s recommendations to move all primary schools to a single-session model to support a higher quality primary education. With a single session, schools will be able to provide greater flexibility in time and space for teachers to deliver a more holistic education to their pupils. Pupils will be able to benefit from a wider range of academic and non-academic activities that will nurture life skills and develop their character. To achieve this, MOE plans to build 18 new schools and enhance up to 80 existing ones in phases. In Phase 1, 11 new primary schools will be built and 28 existing schools will be upgraded. Details on the Phase 1 schools are in the annex.

As with the upgrading of schools under the Programme for Rebuilding and IMproving Existing Schools (PRIME), the majority of the Phase 1 schools will continue to operate on their existing sites in parallel with the upgrading works. MOE will take the necessary measures to ensure safety, security and the smooth operations of the schools during the upgrading process.

Indoor Sports Hall

Since early 2007, MOE has been working to provide all schools with an indoor sports hall (ISH) in phases. This is to provide schools with greater flexibility to conduct Co-Curricular Activities and Physical Education lessons, which are integral to holistic education. Students will have more opportunities to participate in sports and games at any time of the school day regardless of the weather.

Schools to be upgraded for the move to a single session will have the ISH provided as part of their upgrading process where possible, if they do not already have one.

Background

Single-Session Primary Schools

PERI Committee, chaired by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister for State, Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Education, was formed in October 2008 to study ways to enhance primary education. One of PERI Committee’s recommendations was to move all primary schools to a single session to support a higher quality primary education.

Schools that have moved to a single-session model have shared positive feedback about being able to provide a better environment to develop their pupils. This was repeatedly affirmed by school leaders, teachers and members of the public throughout the consultation process. MOE has accepted the PERI Committee’s recommendation to move all primary schools towards a single-session model, so as to give schools more flexibility to provide well-balanced educational programmes for pupils. Single-Session Primary Schools will also provide pupils with more time and space to interact meaningfully with their teachers. This will help balance the acquisition of knowledge with the delivery of skills and imparting of core values to our children.

MOE targets to facilitate the transition of all government primary schools to single session by 2016. Government-aided schools will be given more flexibility in their transition timeline, as they have to take into consideration their stakeholders’ needs. More information on PERI Committee’s recommendations can be found at the PERI website.

Annex: Details on the 11 New Primary Schools and Upgrading of 28 Existing Primary Schools

The locations of 5 new primary schools that will commence operations in Jan 2012 are shown in the table below. The locations for the remaining 6 new primary schools that will commence operations in January 2013 are being finalised and will be announced later.

List of existing primary schools that will undergo minor renovation works.

List of existing primary schools to be upgraded on-site, unless specified otherwise.

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