14 November 2025
Every year, P1 registration turns otherwise normal parents into amateur planners and data nerds. We talk about phases, alumni, balloting, and of course the magic phrase: “within 1km”.
Somewhere in the chats, someone will say: “Just use another address. Everyone does it. Just don’t get caught.”
This recent case shows what happens when “don’t get caught” turns into one week in jail instead.
A 42-year-old mother wanted her daughter in a popular primary school. She owned an HDB flat near the school, but it was rented out. During the 2023 P1 registration, she used that flat’s address under the distance priority scheme, even though she and her child were staying at her partner’s place elsewhere.
About a year later, she emailed the school to update her address to her partner’s home, which is outside the distance zone. That single “change of address” request clashed with the 30-month stay requirement and triggered checks.
The school did not simply update her record and move on.
Once the school saw the new address, they started verifying. Staff visited the declared flat and found only tenants living there. The girl had basically never stayed at that address. Tenants also said the mother had asked them to say she lived there.
The school informed her that her child would be transferred to another school nearer the real home, and the school lodged a police report. In court, she pleaded guilty to giving false information to public servants and misreporting her address. The judge decided a fine was not enough and gave her one week in jail, which means a real prison stay and a criminal record.
After all that, her child still did not remain in the original “dream” school.
It is easy to feel that everyone is gaming the system and that using a relative’s or spare flat’s address is just part of the P1 game. This case is a reminder that a fake address is not a harmless trick. It is a false declaration to public officers, and MOE and schools now actively verify when something looks odd.
Even if you manage to get a place at first, the risk does not disappear. It can surface later, when your child is already settled, and the fallout can include a transfer, investigations, stress for the whole family, and a criminal record for you. The school name on your child’s badge is not worth that.
If you are feeling the P1 pressure, focus on what is still within the rules: be realistic about schools near your real home, understand how balloting works, plan back-up choices, and if you intend to move, make it a real move, not just on paper.
If your child gets into a school using distance priority, MOE expects your child to actually live at that address and for you to stay there for 30 months from the start of registration.
For details, you can read more here:
From the CNA report, the prosecution itself was prepared to proceed on the basis of a fine of about S$10,000 and was not asking for a jail term. She is a single mother and cannot afford the fine, hence the jail term 😭 (once again, the rich can get off easily)
The judge decided to go further because there were two aggravating factors:
In other words, the punishment was harsher not just because she used a fake address, but because she doubled down on the lie and pulled other people into it. She was obstructing investigation.
Just sharing — we found an art class our kid loves ➔