CNA Podcast: Can we stop parents from gaming the system?

I was invited to Deep Dive, a podcast hosted by Steven Chia and Tiffany Ang. Watch the episode here.

It was a good discussion on a sensational headline.

Some of what I shared was edited out, perhaps because it was controversial. Nonetheless, I am going to share them here.

The judge admits schools are not equal

In the clip at 12:10, I said there were two consequences, and the first is deterrence.

The second consequence wasn’t included in the edited clip, but I explained the following.

In the court proceedings, the judge asked the prosecutors if there was any harm done. The prosecutors replied:

“may have been some harm” caused to a student whose place was taken up by the accused’s daughter

I was alarmed by this answer because saying there is harm, and worthy of 1-week jail with a criminal record, is rather hard to justify.

If all schools are the same, then stealing a place from another child wouldn’t make a difference, right?

I’m not saying we should steal or cheat, but I’m pointing out that the judge/Singapore clearly thinks the school is too good and can cause harm when depriving another child of a spot.

On the flip side of deterrence, news like this just makes parents even more FOMO — since it shows, yet again, that some schools really are seen as better.

Common Practices

In the introduction of the podcast, I actually said that it is very common to game the home address. I might have exaggerated a little and said:

If we are going to jail every parent who has cheated, then we will probably have to build another Changi Prison. 😂

The truth is that it’s a very common practice. Many people know these tricks:

• Borrow an address from a relative
• Rent a 1-bedroom condo (minimum 3-month lease, while HDB is minimum 6-month)

Things get murky because many will actually buy a house after they are guaranteed a place in the primary school. They will eventually live within 1km, just later.