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Compulsory Education Exemption

Published on: 09 Sep 2026

NewsParliamentary replies

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Ms Sylvia Lim, Aljunied GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education for the last five years (a) how many Singaporean children have been exempted from attending national schools under the Compulsory Education (Exemption) Order; and (b) how many of such children were exempted respectively on the grounds of (i) physical, intellectual or developmental disability (ii) being home-schooled and (iii) the Director-General deeming the child unsuitable and under what circumstances.

Response

  1. Over the last five years, around 700 Singaporean children were exempted from attending national schools each year.
  2. Of these, around 85% were placed in non-mainstream schools based on their educational and well-being needs, less than 15% were home-schooled and the rest were exempted on the grounds of physical, intellectual or developmental disability.