One common question asked by most parents is how the distance between the Primary school and their homes is computed.

MOE provides schools with an updated list of Home-School distance categories each year, about 2 weeks before the start of the Primary 1 registration process.  Parents are welcome to call up the schools to check their official distance from the school at no cost.

Alternatively, parents can also do it themselves using a variety of services available on the Internet.

• The official source is SLA's INLIS.  The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is the source that provides the home-school distances to MOE every year.  Parents can enter a postal code or address of their residence and then select the Primary school which they wish to calculate the distance from their property.  This is NOT a free service, and costs about $2.10 per computation.
• Free services.  There are several free services out there which allows parents to guage the home-school distances.  However, such services cannot be used as official proof of home-school distances for Primary 1 Registration.
  • MyLifeStyleMap.  This used to be called CAN.COM.SG, and is operated by Greendot Media, a portal company that owns several online websites.  In many ways, this is the best free alternative because the map data actually comes from SLA itself.  So the results should be quite close to what the schools have.
    • To use this map, enter the postal code of your residence in the "Live Search" text input box of the Map Finder section where it shows the outline of Singapore.
    • Press enter and you should see the map area refresh and zoom in to your residence.
    • Scroll down the page to see the list of properties matching your search.  You should see the full address details of your residence.
    • Click on the "What's Nearby" link belonging to that record.
    • Select the "Primary Schools" checkbox and click on the "Go" button.
    • You should see the list of Primary Schools within a radius of 3km from your home address, sorted in ascending order of distance.  Each school entry will have a distance value showing the linear distance between the school and your residence.
  • StreetDB.  StreetDB.com is a new site born of a joint collaboration between SingaporeExpats.com and AGIS, a local mapping company.
    • To use this map, enter the postal code of your residence in the "Search location in Singapore" text input box right at the top of the StreetDB.com front page.
    • Press enter and you should see a list of properties matching your search.
    • Click on the property matching your residence.  You should see a map zoomed in and centered around your residence.
    • Under the "Search Nearest Amenities" section on the right, select "School & Institution", and press the "Submit" button.
    • You should see the list of all schools (including Secondary and other institutions) displayed, along with a distance value showing the linear distance between the school and your residence.