Jail for woman who lied about address to enrol daughter in primary school

A woman who lied about her home address to enrol her daughter in a primary school via priority admission was handed a one-week jail sentence on Nov 13.

- Claudia Tan and David Sun Crime Correspondent

The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge of giving false information to public servants and another charge of false information when reporting her change of address on Sept 24.

She cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her daughter’s identity. The gag order extends to the name of the school and the personnel involved.

District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said a jail term was warranted, given the woman’s calculated actions and selfish motives.

"Parents must be under no illusion, that the deliberate subversion of the school admissions framework through deceit will, in certain circumstances, attract penal consequences," she added.

The judge said subverting the admissions process potentially deprives another eligible child of admission to that school, and such offences "strike at values that lie at the heart of our society".

"They confer an undeserved advantage, erode public confidence in a system carefully designed to balance competing aspirations, and unfairly disadvantage those who abide by the rules."

During the 2023 Primary 1 registration exercise, the woman enrolled her daughter in the school via priority admission based on the distance of their home to the school.

To do so, she provided the address of an HDB flat she leased out to six tenants.

In June 2024, she emailed the school to request a change to her records, and provided her partner’s address, which was beyond 2km of the school.

She retracted the request when the school told her that it would violate the 30-month stay requirement for pupils who enrolled via priority admission.

When the vice-principal of the school met the woman to verify her address in August 2024, she told her tenants to shutter the flat’s windows from 7am to Ilpm.

She also instructed them to lie and say that she and her daughter lived in the unit.