Park Road School Part 09

I attended Park Road School from 1963 to 1968. The portrait of Singapore's first President, the Encik Yusof bin Ishak was prominently displayed in the Park Road School and in all Singapore schools. The Singapore education dated early back to 1823 before the Second World War. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, an English man set up in 1823 at a sea-front stretch along Victoria Street the Singapore Institution (which is now known as Raffles Institution) which he envisioned as a training school for the local teachers and civil servants and for promoting European knowledge of the local languages, literature and culture. Through this act, he started the educational system of Singapore (which was under the British rule) based on the British model. Education in Singapore was also largely provided by the ethnic and religious communities here. There were three main types of schools appeared in the country. These were Malay school, Chinese and Tamil schools and the English schools. The churches funded the English-language mission schools. The local mosques ran Malay and Arabic classes in the kampongs. The Chinese philanthropists, clans, villages established schools in both city and rural areas. Chinese, Malay and Tamil schools largely taught in their respective mother tongues. Education is made available to all children regardless of their race, language, religion, sex or socio-economic background. Parents are free to choose the language of instruction for their children. While all pupils are required to study 2 official languages, English is generally taken as a first or as a 2nd language. Singapore has since independence in 1965 made education compulsory for all children up to the age of 12 years and the primary education is compulsory under the Compulsory Education Act since 2003. Education in Singapore was managed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) which controlled the development and administration of all state schools receiving government funding. For both private and state schools, there were variations in the extent of autonomy in their curriculum, scope of government aid and funding, tuition burden on the students and school admission policy. Formal education in Singapore begins with the primary schools (Primary 1 through Primary 6) beginning at age 6. It is broad and general in scope. The revised system of primary education, introduced in 1976, allowed pupils to finish 6, 7 or 8 years, depending on their individual temperament and abilities. The primary education was free except for the school books and uniforms for all Singapore citizens in schools under the purview of the Ministry of Education, though there was a monthly fee of S$13 per student to help cover the miscellaneous costs. However, there were grants made available to the poor students attending school so that no one was denied an education for monetary reasons. After 6 years of primary education, the students would have to sit for the national Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). Students would choose the secondary school of their choice and be posted to the secondary school based on the result of PSLE. In 2004, the students could also be admitted to a secondary school under a separate "Direct School Admission" scheme. Under the scheme, the secondary schools were able to choose a certain number of students based on their special talents before these students take the PSLE. Students admitted under this scheme could not select their schools based on their PSLE results. To suit the needs of a multi-ethnic society, a bilingual policy has been adopted by the Singapore Government. However, the bilingual policy does not simply mean that one must to learn any two different languages. Under this policy, the government requires that each student in Singapore must learn 2 official languages, starting from Primary One – English and one of the three ethnic languages, that is, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. According to the MOE educational system, these two languages are officially referred to as the ‘first language’ and the ‘second language’, depending on the language stream of the school. During the period, English was the main medium of education but students were also required to study their mother tongue. It should be noted that the languages available for this "mother tongue requirement" were limited to Mandarin, Tamil and Malay. Many students did not speak any of these languages at home: most Chinese spoke Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese or some other non-Mandarin Chinese dialect, while many Indians spoke Malayalam, Punjabi, Telegu, Hindi, Bengali or some other Indian language rather than Tamil. Thus, it is not uncommon for many Singaporeans to be able to communicate in 3 languages. School uniform is compulsory at all Singapore state schools. Singapore is a former British colony and the requirement of school uniform is well established in its colonial era. The Government does not mandate the style and colour of the school uniform. All state schools in Singapore (that is, local primary and secondary schools and not universities) have their own unique uniforms. A strong sense of bonding is created by wearing the same school uniform by students. A Singapore school uniform is usually chosen by the head of the school (“principal”) and lasts for the major part of the school's history. Schools rarely change its uniform not unless the replacement principal insists on it. Dark blue and white were the traditional school colours of Park Road School. Given the warm climate, the normal uniform for boys was short trousers in blue colour with a white short-sleeved shirt. Girls' uniform was a single-piece blue frock with short sleeves (lined with white trimming), white collar and worn with a belt. Students were required to wear white socks and white shoes with the uniform. In addition, the school badges were sewn on the uniform — at the left chest. Ready made school uniforms could be purchased readily from the school appointed vendor. The Park Road school badge had the following features:- 1) 2 key virtues, "Truth and Honesty ". School motto was “Truth and Honesty” 2) Book - Quality holistic education; 3) 3 interlocking rings - Hope, Love and Integrity The badge was in blue and gold. Blue - the natural colours of the environment and symbolised the steadfastness, graciousness and serenity in life, learning and interacting in a conducive, natural environment and Gold - symbolised the excellence that the school as a whole strove to achieve for the truth and knowledge. During my time, the school badge was an embroidered form sewn on the front of the uniform. It should be noted that the school badge was previously a metal enamelled badge. The design of embroidered version appeared to have undergone some changes and may be a simplified rendition of metal badge.