The Education Ministry is introducing three new measures to make it easier for returning Singaporean children to re-enter the local education system.
The Ministry says this will give Singaporeans the assurance to venture and work abroad.
From 2001 to 2004, the number of students seeking help for school placement stayed constant at just over 100 for both primary and secondary levels.
This went up to over 200 for both categories last year.
At primary school level, the Ministry will do away with the need for placement tests.
Instead, from the middle of this year, the Ministry will identify a school nearest to a child's home that has vacancies and offer this to the child.
At secondary school level, Singaporean children will no longer have to sit for multiple school-based tests.
Instead, the Ministry will develop a Centralised Placement Test and then conduct a posting exercise based on this test result and school choices.
Both primary and secondary school students will have the flexibility to seek admission to other schools if they are not keen on the places allocated to them by the Ministry.
Thirdly, the Ministry will allow secondary schools to admit a small number of returning Singaporean students over and above their planned capacity. - CNA/ir