A 42-year-old woman was sentenced to one week in jail on Thursday for giving a false address so her daughter could secure a place in a sought-after primary school, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.
She had earlier pleaded guilty to providing false information to public servants and misreporting her change of address during the 2023 Primary 1 registration exercise.
Although the prosecution had sought a fine, District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz ruled that a jail term was necessary due to the “deliberate and selfish” nature of her deception.
The woman — who cannot be named because of a gag order protecting her child’s identity — primarily lived with her partner and daughter at another residence while leasing out her Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat.
Despite this, she used the leased flat’s address to qualify for priority admission under the one-kilometre rule. When discrepancies surfaced, she went to lengths to conceal the truth — including instructing tenants to lie about her residence and continuing to misreport her address to school officers.
Judge Sripathy-Shanaz said the woman’s repeated falsehoods undermined the integrity of Singapore’s school admission system and gave her child an “undeserved advantage” over others.
“The offender’s falsehoods were calculated to entrench the false narrative she had created,” the judge noted, stressing that such actions risk eroding public confidence and burden school administrators.
The woman, who represented herself in court, pleaded for leniency, citing her daughter’s medical needs and financial hardship. However, the judge maintained that deterrence was key and emphasised that parents must uphold honesty and integrity, as “children learn from both words and example.”
She later indicated her intention to appeal the sentence to the High Court.
According to CNA, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has seen a rise in similar cases, investigating an average of nine false address reports annually between 2020 and 2024, compared with just one per year from 2008 to 2018.
