Funding Given to Schools

Mr Png Eng Huat asked the Acting Minister for Education (Schools) for each of the years from 2013 to 2015, what is the lowest and highest amount of funding given to schools, broken down by primary, secondary, and independent schools.

Mr Ng Chee Meng: MOE resources schools, based on the needs of their students, the programmes that they offer, and their enrolment, so that each school has adequate resources to develop the students under its charge. As such, resourcing can vary, both across different groups of schools as well as between schools within each group. It would not be meaningful to make comparisons based on the amount of funding given to each school.

At the broader level, the Government remains committed to invest in all schools to develop our students fully and holistically. The Government's investment in education, as reflected in the funding for the operating expenses per student, or per capita funding per student, increased from 2013 to 2015.

The per capita funding of primary education was $8,500 in FY2013 and $9,700 in FY2015. For a secondary student, the funding was $11,400 in FY2013 and $13,400 in FY2015. For independent schools 4 , the per capita funding was $14,100 in FY2013 and $14,700 in FY2015. Within the group of independent schools, the specialised schools like NorthLight School, Assumption Pathway School, Crest Secondary School and Spectra Secondary School received the highest per capita funding support from MOE. On average, in FY2015, these four specialised schools received funding at $25,900 per capita, enabling them to provide the specialised support and programmes to meet the needs of their students.

Note(s) to Question No(s) 17:

4 These schools refer to Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Hwa Chong Institution, Methodist Girls' School, Nanyang Girls' High School, Raffles Girls' School, Raffles Institution, Singapore Chinese Girls' School, St Joseph's Institution, NUS High School for Mathematics and Science and School of Science and Technology. It also includes the four Specialised Schools.