Last updated: 22 May 2019

Understand how balloting works

Balloting can happen at any phase of the Primary 1 (P1) Registration Exercise apart from Phase 1. Learn when that happens, how it is done and who gets priority.

How balloting works

Balloting is conducted when the number of registrants exceeds the school vacancies, which can happen in any phase from 2A(1) to 2C Supplementary.

You can check the list of primary schools that require balloting at the end of the phase to see if your child needs to ballot for a place in your preferred school.

Computerised balloting will be conducted centrally by MOE. All registrants who are required to ballot are assured of an equal chance for admission into the school.

Priority admission to a P1 place in a school will be given to children in this order:

Singapore Citizens (SC) living within 1km of the school.
SC living between 1km and 2km of the school.
SC living outside 2km of the school.
Permanent Residents (PRs) living within 1km of the school.
PRs living between 1km and 2km of the school.
PR living outside 2km of the school.

Refer to the following scenarios to understand which group of registrants will get to ballot:

Example 1: School A has 80 places, but 95 registrants

The 95 registrants are divided into Singapore Citizens (SC), Permanent Residents (PR), and the distances between their schools and homes.

Distance to school	SC registrants
Within 1km	60 (admitted)
1km to 2km	10 (admitted)
Over 2km	5 (admitted)
Total	75

Distance to school	PR registrants
Within 1km	10 (balloting required)
1km to 2km	10 (unsuccessful)
Over 2km	0
Total	20

All 75 SCs will be admitted first. The remaining 5 vacancies will be allocated to the PRs based on their distance to school.

In this case, the 10 PRs living within 1km from the school will ballot for the 5 remaining places.

Example 2: School B has 70 places, but 85 registrants

The 85 registrants are divided into Singapore Citizens (SC), Permanent Residents (PR), and the distances between their schools and homes.

Distance to school	SC registrants
Within 1km	40 (admitted)
1km to 2km	24 (admitted)
Over 2km	7 (balloting required)
Total	71

Distance to school	PR registrants
Within 1km	5 (unsuccessful)
1km to 2km	9 (unsuccessful)
Over 2km	0
Total	14

All SCs within 1km and between 1km and 2km will be admitted first (total 64). After that, SCs living outside 2km will be considered.

With only 6 places remaining, the 7 SCs living beyond 2km will have to ballot for them. All PRs will not be able to get a place in this phase.

Note:

To ensure continued open access to all schools in later phases, we are reserving 40 places in each school for Phases 2B and 2C (20 places each).

At the end of Phase 2A(2), remaining places will be split equally between Phases 2B and 2C.

If there are vacancies left at the end of Phase 2B, the remaining places will be carried forward to Phase 2C.

Unsuccessful registrants

If your child is unsuccessful in any phase of the registration exercise, you can register your child again in the next phase that you are eligible for.

If your child is unsuccessful in Phase 2C Supplementary, they will be posted to a school with available vacancy. You will be informed of the outcome on the results announcement day through SMS.