This is the deprecated guide for pre-2021. For 2022, there are 3 big changes to the P1 registration framework.
Each school starts with a number of vacancy, with 20 places reserved for Phase 2B, and 20 for 2C.
Let’s use an example.
Anderson Primary School have 210 vacancy in 2019.
Therefore, Phase 1 will have:
210 - 20 - 20 = 170
This vacancy of 170 will be used for Phase 1, 2A(1) and Phase 2A(2). In 2019, the first 3 phases took up 86 + 0 + 31 = 117. Therefore the vacancy remaining is:
170 - 117 = 53
For Phase 2B and 2C, they will split the remaining 53 evenly (if odd, give the extra to 2B).
53 / 2 -> 27 + 26
Therefore Phase 2B will have 27, plus the 20 initially reserved:
27 + 20 = 47
In 2019, Phase 2B took up 26 places, and so 47 - 26 = 21
overflow to 2C. Therefore Phase 2C will have:
21 + 26 + 20 = 67
That is theoretically how it works. In our statistics for Anderson Primary School in 2019, you will notice that Phase 2C ended up with 69 (instead of 67 as we calculated).
A possible reason: parents might have withdrawn their application after securing a place (in earlier phases eg. Phase 1). They give up their place, and therefore the vacancy is added to Phase 2C(S). However, statistics from MOE do not update past phases for places given up, hence causing the miscount.