The Act limits use of certain education-related names unless the Director-General gives written consent, allows ministerial exemptions for some schools, and lets the Minister authorise officers and requires those authorisations to be published in the Gazette.
Education Act 1957 2020 REVISED EDITION This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021 An Act relating to education and registration of schools. [13 December 1957] PART 1 GENERAL Short title 1. This Act is the Education Act 1957. Interpretation 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — “building” includes part of a building; “committee of management” means the committee of management of a school referred to in section 26; “Director-General” means the Director‑General of Education; “document” includes any book, textbook, exercise book, accounts, counterfoils, pamphlet, publication, newspaper, poster, drawing, sketch, film, filmstrip, slide, gramophone record, and other printed, written or recorded matter, whether relating to instruction, recreation, school management or otherwise; “fees” includes all amounts which a pupil is required to pay with respect to his education at a school; “functions” includes powers and duties; “Government school” means a school organised and conducted directly by the Government; “Government teacher” means a teacher directly employed by the Government; “higher education” means education beyond the standard normally required for admission to a university; “manager” of a school means a member of the committee of management of a school; “medical officer” means a registered medical practitioner in the service of the Government; “principal” means the headmaster or head mistress of a school; “public health inspector” means a health inspector of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment; “pupil” means a person of any age receiving instruction in a school; “register of managers and supervisors”, “register of schools” and “register of teachers” mean the respective registers maintained by the Director‑General under section 19, and “registered” means entered upon one of those registers; “school” means according to the context — (a) an organisation for the provision of education for 10 or more persons; or (b) a place where 10 or more persons are being or are habitually taught whether in one or more classes, or in the case of a correspondence school, the place or places where instruction is prepared or where answers are examined or corrected; “school premises” means school buildings and includes school playgrounds and playing fields; “supervisor” means the manager registered as the supervisor under section 28; “teacher” means a person who teaches pupils in a school or who prepares or issues lessons or corrects written answers in a correspondence school and includes a principal; “unlawful society” means a society deemed to be an unlawful society under the provisions of the Societies Act 1966. [8/97] Exemption 3. The Minister may by notification in the Gazette, if he is satisfied that the teaching in any school is of a purely religious character or that any school is an institution of higher education, exempt that school and the managers or teachers thereof from all or any of the provisions of this Act and may at any time revoke any such exemption. Schools to which this Act does not apply 4. This Act shall not apply — (a) to or in relation to the Institute of Technical Education, Singapore established under the Institute of Technical Education Act 1992; (b) to any private education institution within the meaning of the Private Education Act 2009; and (c) to or in relation to any early childhood development centre licensed under the Early Childhood Development Centres Act 2017. [21/2009; 19/2017] Restriction on use of “school”, etc. 4A.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), no person or organisation shall, except with the written consent of the Director-General — (a) use the words “academy”, “college”, “school”, “university” or any other term which the Minister may specify by notification in the Gazette, or any of its derivatives, in any language or any other word or words indicating that the person or organisation provides education, in the name, description or title under which that person or organisation is providing education; or (b) make or continue to make any representation to that effect in any bill-head, letter paper, notice, advertisement or in any other manner. [21/2009] (2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to — (a) a school that is registered or exempted from registration under this Act; (b) the Government; (c) any body established or constituted by or under a public Act and that has a public function, or any wholly-owned entity of such a body; (d) an education institution established by any other written law or the functions of which are provided by any other written law; and (e) such other person or organisation, or any class thereof, as may be prescribed. [21/2009] (3) Any person or organisation that contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both. [21/2009] Delegation of Director-General’s functions 5.—(1) The functions of the Director-General under the provisions of this Act may be exercised and discharged by such officers of the Ministry of Education as may from time to time be authorised for that purpose by the Minister. [Act 5 of 2025 wef 09/03/2025] (2) Any authorisation under subsection (1) must be published in the Gazette. [8/97] [Act 5 of 2025 wef 09/03/2025]