I attended Park Road School from 1963 to 1968.
Park Roas School - How a primary school in Chinatown inspired a generation of underprivileged kids 1954 t0 1980.
In Singapore, the early history of establishment of educational institutions could be traced back to the days of British colonial government, missionaries, religious groups and philanthropists. Malays are the indigenous local of Singapore. According to records, Park Road School was formerly known as "Sepoy Lines School II" and its neighbouring school, Pear Bank School, formerly known as"Sepoy Lines School I" along Pearl's Hill Terrace in Chinatown. Further up the hill (Pearl Hill) was Pearl's Hill School. Within the vicinity, there was the third school, Sepoy Lines Malay School. The name of Sepoy Lines Malay School was seen in press report as eary as 1900s.
Park Road School took in its 1st intake of pupils in 1954.
In the news report dated 10 September 1954 of The Singapore Free Press (Singapore's second English language newspaper bought over by The Straits Times in 1946 and merged with The Malay Mail in 1962) published "The new Park Road primary School was taken over by Singapore Education Department today. It will be occupied on Monday by 400 pupils. This is the fourth school to be taken over recently." We had the Ministry Of Education (previously Education Department) when People’s Action Party formed Singapore’s first fully elected government under the new Constitution following its victory in the 1959 General Elections. The Ministry Of Education was formerly known as the Department of Education before it assumed its present name in May 1955.
In another news report dated 11 September 1953 of Singapore Standard published “ Another New school For Colony Singapore’s fourth new primary English school to be handed over by the Public Works Department to Mr.T.P. JM. Lewis of the Education Department. The school， the Park Road primary school，is a three- storey building ,,,,,,,,,,“ Singapore Standard （星洲虎报） was the only English newspaper founded by Tiger Balm King， Aw Boon Haw. The paper was established in 1950 under his company Sin Poh （Star News） Amalgamated， Ltd. （星系报业有限公司）， which published Chinese newspapers such as Sin Chew Jit Poh （星洲日报） in Singapore and Sin Pin Jih Pao （星槟日报） in Penang. The Singapore Standard ran for over nine years before it ceased publication in 1959. Singapore was a British Colony from 1819 to 1965.
Park Road School is "北路学校" in Mandarin.
In 1985, Park Road School merged with Pearl Bank School to form Pearl Park Primary School. In the 15th edition of Singapore Street Directory published in 1988 showed Pearl Park Primary School.
Pearl Park Primary School merged with Pearl's Hill School in 1995 but closed its doors to students and remained vacant in 31 December 2001 due to dwindling student population. The school building was occupied by the Stamford Student Residence before being leased out by Singapore Land Authority. The site was later occupied by Hotel Re!@ Pearl’s Hill.
Refurbished Park Road School is now Pearl's Hill Care Home (珠光山 养生舍) in 2016. Set up by the Ministry of Health and MOH Holdings, it was operated by Vanguard Healthcare and is Singapore’s first government-run nursing home for seniors to recuperate before eventually returning to their homes.
School principals:
1954 - Mr Wazir Singh
1960 - Ms Allajithan
1961 - Mr Winston Vaz
1962 - Mr Wee Loh Siew
1966 - Mrs Moey Swee Neo
1981 – Mrs Kang
1982 – Mr Cheong Cheng Law
Mrs Moey Swee Neo passed away on 5 March 2018.
