Tightening of Schools' Affiliation Requirements and Resulting Impact on Academic Pressure and Tuition Reliance

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Kenneth Goh, Nominated Member of Parliament

Question

To ask the Minister for Education given the Ministry's encouragement for affiliated secondary schools to tighten their Affiliate Minimum Requirements (a) whether it has evaluated changes in academic pressure, tuition reliance and academic competition among pupils in the corresponding affiliated primary schools following such tightening; (b) if so, what the findings are; and (c) if no evaluation has been undertaken, whether one is planned.

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr David Hoe, Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) what factors affiliated secondary schools consider when setting their Affiliate Minimum Requirements; (b) whether the Ministry has studied the extent to which affiliation priority at Secondary 1 influences parents’ choice of primary school and contributes to demand concentration at affiliated primary schools; and (c) whether such study informs its review of affiliation policy.

Response

1. All affiliated secondary schools are required to set Affiliate Minimum Requirements (AMR) from 2004. Since then, MOE has encouraged affiliated schools to progressively tighten their AMR to facilitate greater access for non-affiliated students. From 2019, MOE has also required schools to reserve at least 20% of places in each Posting Group at Secondary One for non-affiliated students.
2. Parents consider a range of factors when choosing a primary school for their child, including proximity, the school’s programmes and culture. As these considerations may differ across families, it is difficult to isolate the influence of any single factor definitively.
3. Similarly, as we have observed from MOE’s ongoing Education Conversations and the 2026 Institute of Policy Studies Survey on Singapore’s Education System, the drivers for academic pressures and competition are complex and multi-faceted.
4. While affiliation can support continuity between schools with a long history and distinctive school culture and may possibly reduce anxiety for students moving from the affiliated primary to the affiliated secondary school, it should be balanced against ensuring that our schools remain open and accessible to students without prior connections to the school.