18 Schools in S’pore to Undergo Mergers Including Former PM Lee Kuan Yew’s Primary School

By
Megan
-

Last Updated on 2021-04-14 , 9:06 am

According to the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Wednesday (7 Apr), four pairs of primary schools and five pairs of secondary schools are to be merged between 2022 and 2024. 

This makes for a total of 18 schools affected. 

Here’s all that you need to know. 

18 Schools in S’pore to Undergo Mergers Including Former PM Lee Kuan Yew’s Primary School

Here are the paired primary schools:

  • Juying Primary School and Pioneer Primary School
  • Eunos Primary School and Telok Kurau Primary School
  • Farrer Park Primary School and Stamford Primary School
  • Guangyang Primary School and Townsville Primary School

Here are the paired secondary schools: 

  • Bedok Green Secondary School and Ping Yi Secondary School 
  • Chua Chu Kang Secondary School and Teck Whye Secondary School
  • Fajar Secondary School and Greenridge Secondary School
  • New Town Secondary School and Tanglin Secondary School
  • Fuchun Secondary School and Woodlands Ring Secondary School

Psst… Fun Fact, our former PM Mr Lee Kuan Yew was from Telok Kurau Primary School. 

The new names of the merged schools will be announced at a later date. 

All of the mergers will be carried out in 2023, with the exception of Juying Primary School and Pioneer Primary School which will be carried out in 2022, and Fuchun Secondary School and Woodlands Ring Secondary School which will be carried out in 2024. 

Why the need to merge, you may ask? 

According to Ms Liew Wei Li, MOE’s director of schools and deputy-director general of education, “Declining birth rates and changing demographics in our housing estates have led to falling enrolment in several of our schools. At the same time, some areas are experiencing rising demand for school places.” 

She said that the schools have been chosen for the mergers based on “enrolment needs, geographical proximity of the schools to be merged, suitability of merger partners and the receiving schools’ infrastructure capacities”. 

MOE shared at a briefing on Wednesday that the resident birth rate has seen a steady decline from around 46,000 per year in the 1990s to approximately 35,000 in recent years. 

MOE also added that population demographics in the newer estates have seen changes that have caused “an uneven distribution of students across the schools”. 

According to Ms Liew, there will be no retrenchment of MOE staff with the mergers. 

MOE has made it clear that they have made plans for staff who are not going to be a part of the merged school to be assigned someplace else in the education system. 

“We will ensure everyone will be redeployed.”

Ms Liew added that MOE will work closely with the affected schools to ensure that the merging process for all schools is “as smooth as possible”. 

Most Recent Merging Exercise was in 2019

14 pairs of schools underwent mergers in 2019, and this merger was a particularly memorable one because it included, for the first time, junior colleges. 

Serangoon, Tampines, Innova and Jurong JCs merged with Anderson, Meridian, Yishun and Pioneer JCs respectively. 

Seven pairs of primary schools and three pairs of secondary schools also took part in the mergers. 

The merging of schools in 2019 was also accounted for by Singapore’s declining birth rates. 

Featured Image: Donal Keane / Shutterstock.com

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Megan
Email: [email protected]