S'pore's last all-boys govt school wants to go co-ed. Some old
boys upset
By Santokh Singh
August 18, 2005
IT is the country's last all-boys government school.
But Victoria School (VS) has decided to take a knife to tradition -
it wants to go co-ed.
The school has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Education in
what looks like a move to play catch-up with some of Singapore's
top schools.
It hopes that turning co-ed can make it the main feeder school for
Victoria Junior College (VJC) with the possibility of merging into
one Integrated Programme (IP) in the long run.
That would make it similar to the Raffles and Hwa Chong families,
where the boys' and girls' schools are linked to their respective
JCs. Their students study a six-year course bypassing the O
levels.
MOE confirmed receiving the proposal and said it had asked the
school to submit a detailed proposal of its overall long-term plan
for evaluation.
If it gets the nod, VS will leave behind a 129-year-old tradition
of being an all-boys secondary school.
The school did have girls in pre-university classes from the 1950s
until as late as the '80s.
Right now, it is the only government all-boys' school left in
Singapore.
PRINCIPAL'S E-MAIL
VS principal Ang Pow Chew, 46, is away on a school trip to China
and could not be contacted.
But in an earlier e-mail to his staff, he said the school is
suffering a brain drain following recent changes to the education
landscape.
In 2004, 38 students, about 10 per cent of that cohort, left VS to
join the IP offered by Junior Colleges and some of the independent
schools.
The school predicts that the number leaving the school could go up
to 100 or about a third of the cohort.
Said Mr Ang in the e-mail: 'VS will experience a deep hollowing out
effect. In anticipation of the challenges and opportunities
generated, VS and Victoria JC see merits in both institutions
working closely together to offer linked programmes.'
VJC is already offering its own IP programme for students from Sec
3 onwards.
The plan is for VS to be the main feeder school for VJC. To do so
at least 50 per cent of each Sec 3 cohort must meet the JC's
cut-off mark. That may not be possible if it remains an all-boys
school.
Said Mr Ang: 'As it is unlikely that this target can be reached
with VS remaining a boys' school, we believe that turning co-ed
will raise the quality of the intake.'
Eventually, both schools hope to run an Integrated Programme just
as the Raffles and Hwa Chong families are doing now.
Many old Victorians were unhappy.
Old boy Chan Joo Peng, 27, said: 'I don't think the aim is to bring
about an IP programme at all. It is just to help VS climb the
rankings ladder.
'While I am all for better performance, I am not for it to be at
the expense of some strong traditions. I would rather see an an
all-boys VS moving up the ladder on its own steam.'
Old Victorians Association president Aaron Tan said they would
respond after a meeting on the issue.
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Should JC anthem change?
SHE wants the school song changed.
At a school assembly earlier this year, principal of Victoria JC
Chan Khah Gek suggested that a line in the song 'Victoria, thy sons
are we' wasn't sensitive to female Victorians and should be
replaced.
Some current students and alumni however, were not enthusiastic
about the suggestion.
'The anthem is part of a tradition - and I don't think we need to
take the word 'sons' at face value,' said one second-year female
VJC student.
But some feel that a change makes sense if both VJC and VS are
co-ed.
When contacted, Mrs Chan said 'more structured feedback' is needed
to find out if only a minority of students feel that the school
song should be changed.
- LIEW HANQING
