‘More than just a privilege’: Increase in Phase 2C places draws mixed reactions from alumni parents

“Fairer for who?” he said. “There must be a logic and process to evaluate school placements. Why can’t we have one that’s genuinely fair-minded, then live with the consequences?”

Others were more circumspect about whether the changes could be characterised as fair.

Jean (not her real name), an alumna of Raffles Girls’ Primary School who has a daughter, said she was surprised by the changes as “alumni priority appears to be an established practice in national schools”.

But she said fairness in the registration exercise could not be viewed in absolute terms.

“My view is that the concept of ‘fair’ is a subjective and reductive label. There is no broad-brush version of fairness, in that for the rules to be ‘fair’ to one group, another group loses out,” said Jean, who is a lawyer.

From a policy-design perspective, no simple registration system may satisfy all parents, said Associate Professor Jason Tan, who works in policy, curriculum and leadership at the National Institute of Education.

“There is probably no way of ensuring that the registration framework will appease the concerns of all parents,” he said.

A completely randomised lottery system could appear fairer and ensure a wider spread of demographic backgrounds, but it would come with its own trade-offs, he said.

“Many parents would be upset at not being able to choose a preferred school,” he said, adding that the young age of Primary 1 pupils would also raise concerns over travelling time and whether children can attend the same school as their older siblings.

More broadly, Assoc Prof Tan said policymakers are “grappling with the practical difficulties involved in making moral, not just technical, decisions that affect parents and students”, including how much priority to give to different policy goals.

Even alumni who are not yet parents are willing to accept the changes.

St Margaret’s School (Primary) alumna Rachel, who wanted to be known only by her first name, said she would want her future child to learn alongside peers from different backgrounds and cultures, as this could help develop empathy and understanding. 

“When you have all your children coming from the same socio-economic background, we live in a bubble, and they don’t get to experience other perspectives,” she said.

“The country is not just children living in Bukit Timah or people living in Bukit Timah. If you’re living in this bubble, you’ll miss out on the perspectives of the rest of the population.”

She added that other aspects of primary school education were also “worth debating about”. To her, bigger priorities include equal access to educational resources, teaching quality, the syllabus and addressing student stress.

“The idea that every school is a good school is still an aspiration that we should aim for. This is not the lived reality now,” she said.