S’porean mum caught using fake address to enrol daughter, school files report

SINGAPORE: A 41-year-old mother has been accused of lying about her home address to be able to enrol her daughter in a primary school. 

Documents revealed that the mother falsely told the school’s principal and vice-principal that she lived at a certain address near the school to meet the distance-based enrollment criteria. However, when the school staff visited the area, she was not there. She had asked other tenants to also lie about her residence. 

Details of the incident

In June 2024, the school’s administration manager told the vice-principal that the woman had sent an email to change their address, which was outside the 2km radius of the school. 

According to the Ministry of Education (MOE), a child has priority admission if he/she resides at the address used for registration for at least 30 months from the start of the Primary 1 registration exercise. Since changing her address would violate the 30-month stay requirement, the mother expressed that they would remain living at the same address. 

On August 6, 2024, the vice-principal told the mother that they were staying at the house from Monday to Thursday. However, the mother also told the tenants to lie and say that they still live in the unit. When the school staff visited the flat on August 20, 2024,  the mother and daughter were nowhere to be found. 

On September 20, 2024, the woman told the school authorities that they were living in the flat again, but the school had already informed her that her daughter would be transferred out of the school. 

“If a child is found to have been registered in a school based on false information, such as the use of an address solely for registration purposes without residing there, or if the 30-month stay requirement had not been fulfilled, MOE will transfer the child to another school with vacancies near where the child is staying…. MOE retains sole discretion in the choice of the school to transfer the child for such cases,” a MOE spokesperson declared. 

The mother pleaded and stated that she would live there with her daughter, but the school filed a report against her in November 2024. 

With this, the mother pleaded in the court for a fine, stating that she is a single mother with two children. The judge has postponed the sentencing for the woman to November 13, 2025. 

In Singapore laws, under the Penal Code section 177, if an individual is legally required to give information to authorities but gives false information, he/she can be fined up to $5,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.