Singapore Students Living in and Commuting from Johor to Schools in Singapore

Mr Hri Kumar Nair asked the Minister for Education (a) how many Singaporean children are currently living in Johor and commuting to schools in Singapore daily; and (b) whether this has affected their punctuality, attendance or performance in school.

Page: 549

Mr Heng Swee Keat: The number of Singaporean children living in Johor and commuting daily to schools in Singapore is 866, which is about 0.2% of the entire Singapore citizen student population.

MOE conducted a study of daily commuters from a cluster of schools in the north to compare their punctuality, attendance and academic performance with their peers. In the first semester of 2012, there was only a slight variance in the punctuality of the daily commuters compared with their peers. The daily commuters were late for school on two days compared to 0.6 days for their peers. The average school attendance of the daily commuters is slightly worse than their peers. The daily commuters' attendance was 91.5% compared to 96.8% for their peers. The results of the recent mid-year examination of the graduating cohort (Primary 6, 4NT, 4NA, 4E, 5N) show that the performance of the daily commuters is comparable to that of their peers.