Primary Enrolment by Level and Stream
Description
Ministry of Education reports primary school enrolment from 1980 to 2025 by level, stream, and sex. Footnotes document historical streaming reforms including EM1/EM2/EM3 and later subject-based banding. Useful for education policy history and primary enrolment trend analysis in Singapore.
Official description
(1) The channelling of Primary 3 students into Primary 4 Normal, Extended and Monolingual streams was replaced in 1992 by channelling at Primary 4 into Primary 5 EM1, EM2 and EM3 streams. (2) Total primary enrolment includes Primary 7 and Primary 8 students from the Extended and Monolingual streams. (3) Since 2004, the distinction between the EM1 and EM2 streams have been removed and schools were given the autonomy to decide on how best to band their students by ability, in ways that added the most educational value. Since 2008, Subject-based Banding was introduced for the Primary 5 cohort and streaming was removed. With Subject-based Banding, students are able to offer a mix of Standard- or Foundation-level subjects depending on their aptitude in each subject.
- Last updated
- Coverage
- 1980-01-01 – 2025-01-01
- Rows
- 882
- Columns
- 5
Data
| Year | Sex | Stream | LEVEL | ENROLMENT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | MF | Primary 1 | 46377 | |
| 1980 | F | Primary 1 | 22460 | |
| 1980 | MF | Primary 2 | 49655 | |
| 1980 | F | Primary 2 | 23800 | |
| 1980 | MF | Primary 3 | 47495 | |
| 1980 | F | Primary 3 | 22595 | |
| 1980 | MF | Extended | Primary 4 | 4670 |
| 1980 | F | Extended | Primary 4 | 1657 |
| 1980 | MF | Monolingual | Primary 4 | 2189 |
| 1980 | F | Monolingual | Primary 4 | 650 |
| 1980 | MF | Normal | Primary 4 | 45994 |
| 1980 | F | Normal | Primary 4 | 22015 |
| 1980 | MF | Primary 5 | 45374 | |
| 1980 | F | Primary 5 | 22011 | |
| 1980 | MF | Primary 6 | 49756 | |
| 1980 | F | Primary 6 | 24015 | |
| 1981 | MF | Primary 1 | 42589 | |
| 1981 | F | Primary 1 | 20384 | |
| 1981 | MF | Primary 2 | 46513 | |
| 1981 | F | Primary 2 | 22493 | |
| 1981 | MF | Primary 3 | 49279 | |
| 1981 | F | Primary 3 | 23605 | |
| 1981 | MF | Extended | Primary 4 | 5080 |
| 1981 | F | Extended | Primary 4 | 1886 |
| 1981 | MF | Monolingual | Primary 4 | 3512 |
Columns
| Column | Type | Categorical |
|---|---|---|
| Year | Year (YYYY) | Yes |
| Sex | Text | Yes |
| Stream | Text | Yes |
| LEVEL | Text | Yes |
| ENROLMENT | Text | No |