For parents without an existing school connection, the headline change is more access at Phase 2C. Most primary schools will reserve 60 Phase 2C places, up from 40. At 12 named schools, Phase 2C will also be divided into two tracks: applicants who live within 2km and applicants who live more than 2km away.
The change matters because Phase 2C is the broad-access phase: children can apply whether or not a parent is an alumnus, volunteer or otherwise connected to the school. MOE’s stated purpose is to widen access while encouraging a more diverse mix of pupils, without abolishing sibling, alumni, community or proximity considerations elsewhere in the registration framework.
01 · When the new rules start
The new framework begins with the 2027 Primary 1 Registration Exercise. That exercise is for the cohort starting Primary 1 in 2028. Families registering a child in the 2026 exercise should therefore continue to follow the rules, phases and deadlines published for the current exercise.
This date distinction is important because “from 2027” can sound as though it affects children entering school in 2027. It does not. The policy change applies to the registration exercise conducted in 2027, for school entry the following year.
02 · Most schools will reserve 60 Phase 2C places
At most primary schools, the number of places protected for Phase 2C will rise from 40 to 60. Phase 2C is open to children without prior ties to the school, so the increase gives this group a larger guaranteed pool before places are contested.
The main exception is smaller-intake schools with fewer than 180 P1 places. They will continue to reserve 40 Phase 2C places rather than 60. In the 2026 exercise, 27 of the 179 primary schools open for registration had an intake below 180 places, according to MOE figures reported by CNA and The Straits Times.
The change does not add 20 seats to every school’s overall intake. The extra protected Phase 2C capacity comes from the pool that would otherwise be available in earlier phases after Phase 1, while Phase 2B continues to reserve 20 places. Families eligible for Phase 2A or 2B still register earlier and retain their phase priority.
03 · How the new two-track system works at 12 schools
Twelve schools will use a different Phase 2C allocation because the housing around them has a much lower proportion of public housing than Singapore overall. Their Phase 2C vacancies will be split equally between two tracks:
- Track 1: applicants living within 2km of the school.
- Track 2: applicants living more than 2km from the school.
The minimum 60 reserved Phase 2C places therefore starts as a 30–30 split. Any Phase 2C vacancies carried forward from earlier phases are also divided equally between the two tracks. Applications for both tracks open at the same time.
Crucially, distance is not used again inside a track. For the ≤2km track, a child living within 1km does not outrank a child living 1–2km away. In the >2km track, there is no upper distance limit created by this rule.
04 · The 12 schools in the two-track scheme
- Anglo-Chinese School (Junior)
- Anglo-Chinese School (Primary)
- CHIJ (Katong) Primary
- Methodist Girls’ School (Primary)
- Nanyang Primary School
- Ngee Ann Primary School
- Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School
- Raffles Girls’ Primary School
- Singapore Chinese Girls’ Primary School
- St. Margaret’s School (Primary)
- Tanjong Katong Primary School
- Tao Nan School
MOE says these schools are currently in neighbourhoods where public housing accounts for less than 40% of homes within 2km. That is markedly below Singapore’s national profile, where roughly four in five residents live in public housing. The ministry says it will review the list periodically as neighbourhood housing profiles change.
One already-flagged future change is Anglo-Chinese School (Primary): after its planned move from Barker Road to Tengah in 2030, MOE has said the surrounding housing profile will change and the school will no longer fit this specific list on the same basis.
05 · What happens if a track is oversubscribed
Citizenship priority remains. Singapore Citizens are considered ahead of Permanent Residents. If citizen applicants exceed the available places in a particular track, balloting is conducted within that track.
If one track is undersubscribed, unused places can move to citizen applicants in the other Phase 2C track. For example, if a 30-place >2km track receives only 25 citizen applications, the remaining five places can flow to citizen applicants in the ≤2km track rather than sitting unused.
This means the new scheme is not a rigid promise that exactly half of a school’s eventual Phase 2C intake will live beyond 2km. It is a protected starting allocation designed to create a real access route for families farther away while still keeping places for nearby families.
06 · What changes for families living near the 12 schools
Families within 2km still have a dedicated Phase 2C track, so proximity has not been removed from the scheme altogether. What changes is the granularity: once an applicant qualifies for the ≤2km track, being 600 metres away no longer gives an advantage over being 1.8km away within that track.
Parents who have historically treated the 1km boundary as decisive for one of these 12 schools should therefore re-check their assumptions for Phase 2C. The 2km boundary becomes the key line for choosing the track, while balloting risk will depend on the number of eligible applicants in that track.
Outside these 12 schools, the usual home-school distance priorities continue to apply when balloting is required, subject to the rules for the relevant registration phase.
07 · Phase 1, 2A and 2B are not being abolished
The broader registration sequence remains. Phase 1 continues to cover children with an older sibling already in the school. Phase 2A continues to cover specified prior school ties, including eligible alumni and school-related connections. Phase 2B continues for qualifying parent volunteers, linked church or clan associations and active community leaders.
The practical trade-off is that reserving 60 places for Phase 2C at most schools can leave fewer vacancies available for Phase 2A once Phase 1 registrations and the protected Phase 2B/2C allocations are accounted for. MOE’s policy is therefore a rebalancing towards open access, not an expansion of total capacity at every school.
Parents eligible for an earlier phase should not assume they have lost that priority. They have not. But at heavily demanded schools, the number of places remaining in an earlier phase may be tighter than under the 40-place Phase 2C reservation.
08 · What parents should do before the 2027 exercise
First, identify the phase your child is genuinely eligible for rather than planning solely around a popular school name. Second, if considering one of the 12 two-track schools under Phase 2C, check whether your registered address is within or beyond 2km using MOE’s official registration tools when the 2027 exercise opens.
Third, do not treat old forum posts, spreadsheets or previous-year ballot results as a forecast of the new system. The 60-place reservation and two-track design alter the pool of applicants competing against one another, so historical oversubscription patterns may not translate neatly into 2027.
Finally, keep a realistic nearby-school option in the plan. MOE continues to emphasise access to schools reasonably near home, and registration demand varies substantially from school to school and year to year.
09 · Why MOE is changing the framework
MOE says most schools already draw children from a range of backgrounds, but some schools have a narrower socio-economic mix that reflects the housing around them. The ministry links part of that pattern to the current combination of citizenship and home-school distance priority when balloting is needed.
The new framework tries to balance competing objectives: keeping schools accessible to nearby families, preserving some recognition for existing school and community ties, and opening a larger share of places to children who have no prior connection — including families who live farther away from a small group of highly sought-after schools.
Education Minister Desmond Lee said the aim is for schools to remain open and inclusive, where children can form friendships beyond their immediate social circles. MOE says it will monitor registration outcomes and continue reviewing the system rather than treating the 2027 framework as untouchable.
10 · Sources & verification
Primary framework: Ministry of Education, Singapore — the official P1 Registration portal and MOE’s 10 September 2026 announcement of the enhanced Primary One registration framework. The official portal should be treated as the operational source for exercise dates, eligibility and registration steps when the 2027 exercise opens.
Detailed reporting: CNA’s 10 September 2026 report was used to verify the 60-place Phase 2C reservation, the smaller-school exception, the two-track mechanics, citizenship priority, transfer of unused places and the list of 12 schools. The Straits Times’ 10–11 September explainer was used to cross-check the same framework, housing-profile threshold and practical implications for families.
- MOE — Primary 1 registration
- CNA — Primary 1 registration changes from 2027
- The Straits Times — what the 2027 changes mean for your child
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