With the drastic fall in birth rates, why doesn’t there seem to be any reversion in school placement competitiveness?

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember the narrative being told to us is that there were just too few spots in the “upper echelons” of education and having too little national resources to divide amongst all of us.

However as I have grown up, it seems that the education system has only gotten more competitive even while schools being closed left and right due to lack of students (and NOT a lack of resources).

I mean, how is this possible? The government has even calculated that by 2030 the SAF will experience a reduction of manpower by about 1/3, if that’s the case, why the hell are kids still having to torture themselves for spots in better schools in search of opportunities? Why not just move all the kids up a spot for every “missing” Singaporean kid (which should be something like half considering current birthrates).