Official opening of Sang Nila Utama Secondary School

Sang Nila Utama Secondary School was officially opened on 15 October 1961 by then Minister for Education Yong Nyuk Lin. The school was the eighth new school and the third new secondary school to be built since the People’s Action Party formed the government in 1959.^[1] More significantly, the school was the first Malay-medium secondary school established in Singapore.^[2]

Situated on Upper Aljunied Road, the $700,000 three-storey building – with a capacity to accommodate about 1,600 students – of the new co-educational Sang Nila Utama Secondary School was equipped with facilities for education in general and domestic sciences. The school had an initial enrolment of 560 students, comprising nine classes of boys and five classes of girls.^[3]

Before 1968, Sang Nila Utama Secondary School was exclusively a Malay secondary school, offering Malay-stream secondary and pre-university classes  as well as several Malay-stream technical classes.^[4]

In 1968, Sang Nila Utama Secondary School began to offer English-stream secondary classes. The change was necessary due to declining demand for Malay secondary education.^[5] By the end of that year, all of the school’s Malay-stream technical classes were transferred to Upper Serangoon Technical Secondary School.^[6]

By 1970, the school’s student population was 1,756, comprising 35 Malay-stream classes and 13 English-stream classes.To accommodate the growth of extra-curricular activities in the school, extensions to the school were constructed. It was officially reopened on 12 June 1970 by S. Ramaswamy, then parliamentary secretary (law) and member of parliament for Potong Pasir. The extensions consisted of two new buildings housing a library, classrooms, science laboratories and rooms for Home Economics lessons.^[7]

In 1980, the school’s Malay-stream pre-university classes were transferred to Bartley Secondary School.^[8] The transfer was conducted in line with the Ministry of Education’s plan to stream pre-university students into either two- or three-year courses, which inevitably led to the phasing out of all non-English pre-university centres by 1981.^[9]  By 1984, there were only 37 students remaining in the Malay-stream secondary classes.^[10] In 1985, the school’s student population in both its Malay- and English-stream secondary classes totalled 280, which subsequently declined to 94 by the beginning of 1987.As a result, Sang Nila Utama Secondary School ceased operations at the end of 1987.^[11]

Notable alumni of the school include former parliamentary secretary Yatiman Yusof and musician Jant Johari, the first Singaporean to be admitted into the Berklee College of Music in Boston, United States.^[12] Ex-teaching staff of the school include prolific Malay poet and writer, the late Masuri Salikun,^[13] and former senior parliamentary secretary in the then Ministry of Culture, the late Sha’ari Tadin.^[14]

References
1. The first school. (1961, October 15). The Straits Times, p. 11. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
2. The Straits Times, 15 Oct 1961, p. 11; State’s first Malay secondary school ready. (1961, October 12). The Singapore Free Press, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
3. A secondary school for Malays. (1961, October 13). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. Sekolah SNU di-perbesar utk kemudahan pelajar2-nya [SNU School expanded for the convenience of its students]. (1970, June 11). Berita Harian, p. 2. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Sang Nila Utama Secondary School (Singapore). (1984). Sang Nila Utama Secondary School: School magazine 1984 (p. 2). Singapore: Sang Nila Utama Secondary School (Singapore). Call no.: RCLOS q373.5957 SNUSSS.
5. Sang Nila Utama Secondary School, 1984, p. 2.
6. Berita Harian, 11 Jun 1970, p. 2.
7. Berita Harian, 11 Jun 1970, p. 2; School opening. (1970, June 10). The Straits Times, p. 29. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
8. Sang Nila Utama Secondary School, 1984, p. 2.
9. Some schools to scrap pre-U from next year. (1978, December 19). The Straits Times, p. 12. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
10. Sang Nila Utama Secondary School, 1984, p. 2.
11. Nuryati Duriat. (1987, December 4). Kenang-kenangan bersejarah dari dua sekolah [Memories from two schools]. Berita Harian, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
12. Berita Harian, 4 Dec 1987, p. 7; Tempat ‘lahir’ cinta pada muzik [Where his love for music was ‘born’]. (1987, December 4). Berita Harian, p. 7; Goh, P. (1981, November 9). Music is in Jant Johari’s blood. The Business Times, p. 6. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
13. He slumps over on sofa and loses consciousness. (2005, December 7). The New Paper, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
14. Au Yong, J. (2009, December 16). PM offers condolences to wife of late MP. The Straits Times, p. 27. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.