5 Areas that we want to focus on:
- Importance of Educating Females
- School Culture and Spirit
- Past Vs. Present
- School’s Relevance
- School Life in the Past
Section
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Script Outline
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Introduction
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Founded in 1899, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School has come a long way from a small, struggling school squeezed in a shophouse, to a renowned independent school ranking among the top in Singapore today.
SCGS also has a unique history, being the brainchild of farsighted Straits Chinese, or Peranakan gentlemen
passionate about the education of Peranakan girls in Singapore – a strange and often controversial concept in the early 1900s.
While always charting new paths for the future, SCGS has not forgotten its past. Our Heritage Room showcases our rich history through precious artefacts such as books, antique furniture, pictures and beautifully-written letters that have been carefully preserved.
Let us now lead you through the early days of SCGS to the present.
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School History
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In 2014, SCGS celebrated its 115th anniversary and commemorated its 20th year in its current Dunearn Road compound in the same year.
However, the road to success was far from smooth. Our founders, prominent members of the Peranakan community, faced immense opposition from the conception of the school.
Sir Song Ong Siang, chairman of the school board, and instrumental in the schools’ early decades, wrote in The Straits Chinese Magazine in 1899:
The scheme, as was expected, met with a great deal of opposition and criticism, the bitterness of which only those who have worked so hard for its success, can speak fully. It is an old trick of the opponents of all reform movements to fire a volley of irrelevant criticism, mixed up with a good deal of abuse, and when that fails to have its effect, charge the young reformers with want of respect to their gray hairs. We are glad to see that the promoters of the Girls’ School have shown their good sense by preserving a calm attitude, and by quietly continuing in their laudable work.
Similarly, Dr Lim Boon Keng, another notable member of the Peranakan community, wrote a strongly-worded letter explaining why locals had to relinquish the traditional mind-set of keeping their daughters at home.
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Reading of Lim Boon Keng’s Letter
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In the first place, comes the education of girls. This is not the occasion to discuss the desirability of female education. Suffice it to say that no great progress can be made by any people if one half of the people - the greater half it may be - is perpetually kept in a state of ignorance and degradation. Ignorance is infectious, and degradation is contagious. Keep your women in a low, ignorant and servile state and in time you become low ignorant and servile people - male or female! In all our efforts in the reformation of our people, nothing appears to us more praiseworthy than the attempt to induce our people to take an interest in educating our girls.
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School History + Introduction of Ms Julie Wee
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Mindful of the change in times and the rising influence of the West and the English language, Dr Lim and Sir Ong envisioned a school that would be run by the British, with a British system. The girls would be English-educated, unlike many other schools set up by Chinese clan associations.
The school therefore had British principals up to 1951, when there was a timely rise in nationalistic sentiments, and concern that over-exposure to Western ideas might erode local traditions and family values.
The first principal was Miss Geary. In the first 20 years or so, things were unstable. SCGS faced the problem of principals and teachers coming and going as funds were scarce and the premises were dreadful. Teachers were uneducated, underpaid and many even underage.
But through these hard times, the foundation was laid out and SCGS grew.
The school started in a small shophouse at Hill Street. There were only 7 pupils, as most Peranakan families felt scandalised by the act of sending their daughters out of the home, and into a British-run school.
As society grew slowly but steadily in enlightenment, so did the school population. In 1924, we moved to Emerald Hill. Many teachers in the school today taught or studied at the Emerald Hill campus and remember their days there vividly. One of them is Ms Julie Wee, who has dedicated herself to educating girls at SC. She recalls the differences between now and then, when the school moved to the current Dunearn Road campus, a stunningly 5 times larger campus than the old Emerald Hill site.
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Ms Wee’s responses
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Ms Wee said that language skills have always been a prominent feature of education in SCGS and the school has always placed a strong focus on nurturing confident women who can speak and interact with others well.
Since Ms Wee's days as a trainee teacher in the Emerald Hill campus, speech and grammar rules were always an important aspect of English lessons.
By the 1990s, with MOE’s new guidelines, SCGS moved from the grammar focus to a thematic-based curriculum. Students of that generation might remember the “PETS” series of English materials. “PETS” simply stood for ‘Primary English Thematic Series’, but the books were well-loved for the various cute animal mascots that represented each standard, and were featured throughout the textbook and worksheets.
While adhering to ministry requirements, SCGS always believed in innovating to adding value to each girl’s education. Through holistic language learning, which included not only reading and writing, but also interaction and dramatization, the school has sought to equip each SC girl with the ability to analyse the language, and therefore also discernment and independent thinking – true to the aspirations of our founders.
With changing times, SCGS has also harnessed technology in education. Through the use of visuals like movie snippets, pictures, short videos and podcasts, the girls are better able to understand the text. IT has opened a lot of doors and has made information a lot more accessible to the girls, so in terms of knowledge, the girls have easy access to a lot of information and materials.
As a girls' school, SCGS gives its students many opportunities to hone their leadership skills and become women of relevance while also keeping the Peranakan heritage of being a kimgek; a woman who speaks and carries herself well and is not afraid to share her opinions. Not only do students excel academically, but through the SC environment which equips students with vital social skills enabling them to carry themselves during social functions. The SC education is a holistic one that is tailored to aptly prepare SC girls to meet the ever-changing demands for women in society.
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Summary + Link
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The school has changed in many ways since its early days, but some values endure. Ms Wee recalls that SCGS believes in an all-rounded education that focuses not just on academics, but also on discernment and up-to-date knowledge of critical current world affairs, and the ability to adapt to diverse cultures. In recent years, many events organised by the school allow the girls not only get to learn many important values like teamwork and friendship, but also take away memories that stay with them for life.
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The School We Know Today
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The school began as a place where girls could receive education. SCGS is now over a century old and we have come a long way from when we first started. We can only imagine what our founders, Mr Lim Boon Keng and Sir Song Ong Siang, would say if they could see the school today. The school boasts an outstanding reputation and has a vibrant community of over 2200 pupils. Today, SC girls are not only academically drilled but also equipped for the modern world through a diverse range of programmes like overseas exchange programmes with partner schools and world readiness conversations with renowned figures in society. Despite all this, we have not forgotten our humble beginnings. To preserve our roots, the school curriculum also offers special programmes to nurture our girls into graceful and purposeful ladies.
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Introduction of Mrs Phuah
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Many students today know Mrs Florence Phuah as a no-nonsense Home Economics Teacher, but members of the alumni regard her highly for her contributions as a former Vice Principal.
Also, as a proud old SCGS girl, Mrs Phuah gives us an insight into how SCGS has evolved in its mission to illumine the minds of young women.
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Sound byte from Mrs Phuah
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In the past when I was in school you would have what people would called ROTE learning. Meaning the teacher mainly stood in front of the class and taught taught taught, stood in front of the class and went on and on and on and that was the traditional way of teaching. This was, to use another word, didactic teaching, so the teacher in that sense never really had to plan anything too interactive. There was no IT, the teachers couldn’t use computers, couldn’t use those materials to focus. Everything was chalk and talk. She only has her blackboard and her chalk. And I still remember my Geography teacher. She drew, free-hand on the board, the map of the world. This was how the teachers taught, and we didn’t not know any better to us it was the normal way of teaching, and that was how we learn. Of course some teachers were better than others in the sense that maybe we got along better and we could internalise better and had a better relationship with the teacher. Some teachers could tend to be a little bit more stern and be a bit more like a keep away from you kind of personality. So teachers are the same, except the tools that they are using. The tools of their trade have improved a lot. They’ve got more things to help them, they have got more help. In those days there was only just the teacher herself, she had to depend on herself. She had no one to help her, no IT technician to call on, no school clerk to help her do her work, everything she had to do herself.
Of course in a small country like Singapore where we don’t have a hinterland and no other resources, the government has always focused on education for everyone including females. So in that sense, the ladies, the females in Singapore are very lucky, very fortunate that they have such a liberal and open-minded government. And in that sense our parents also have been very open-minded. And I’m talking about old parents you know, parents of the 50s the 60s who were still young and had grown up after the war and who saw that this is reality, this is the future, and that without education even the females, your daughters. So don’t think daughters only need to get married, daughters also need an education. And you could see as the country grew, as the country expanded, more workers were needed in the job market, the ladies came and filled the places quite easily and they went on to doing bigger things. Did you know that the first female doctor in Singapore was a SCGS girl? That was years ago, years years ago. So in that sense SCGS somehow (though there were only a few schools back then), SCGS being an all girls school always had this uniqueness about it, there was something special, there was always that particular extra about SCGS being an all girls school. There were other girls schools, the convent, Raffles’ Girls’ School, Nanyang, all were girls schools. But somehow they never had that kind of image that SCGS has always projected. So the importance of education for ladies, we always saw that and I always feel that the wonderful thing was that SCGS was started by two men, not ladies and supported by a group of very well to-do men and helped to maintain the school and made sure the school did not fail. Or rather men like Song Ong Siang, you know he worked so hard, called all his rich friends together, said ‘come help me give me some money otherwise my school will have to close down. I need to repair the school I need to pay my teachers’. So that was how he kept going, all for the sake of education. So you can imagine the strong belief that he and Dr Lim Boon Keng had and their faith as it were in the necessity to educate females. And you can see really brilliant ladies that occupy many top positions here. Among the many of them are in our alumni. They sit on our school board. Top bankers, top managers and so on. Of course I’m not saying ours is the only school that has such, there are many. But when you talk about ladies, I think SCGS can easily count many in their alumni.
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Summary + Link
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After a hundred years of overcoming obstacles and striving for excellence, staff and students are confident that the school will thrive for another hundred years. Thanks to the perseverance of her founders and succeeding generations of educators, SCGS has made a name for herself as a school of distinction. Her alumni stand proud and tall, holding esteemed positions in the civil service, commercial and private sector.
Ms Janice Koh is well-known stage actress and political figure. In 2012, she was one of nine new Nominated Member of Parliament – or NMPs - selected and was nominated by the Arts community from 47 eligible candidates. She is known for her desire for transparency in regards to the MDA's (Media Development Authority) censorship rulings and her support of the Singaporean arts scene. Looking back on her SCGS education, Ms Koh … (please give brief preview here)
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Sound byte 1 from Ms Janice Koh
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Interview Questions:
- Could you share with us your views on the social need for female education?
- What part do you think SCGS plays in giving women a relevant education?
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Transition 4
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Stage Actress and Nominated Member of Parliament Janice Koh, is an old girl and recalls many fond memories from her days here.
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Sound byte 2 from Ms Janice Koh
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I believe very strongly in education for women. It is something which we certainly take for granted here. If you’ve been following the news you would know that in many, many countries that right is still not established and many girls fight for their right to go to school. I think that we are very fortunate to be in a place where from very early on we had founding founders, we had founding pioneers in society who supported the idea of women having an education. Personally speaking, I don’t know where I would or what I would be if I didn’t have a solid foundation myself in being educated it has very much determined where I am today and the choices I have made in my own life.
I think being an all-girls school, from reading in the history of SCGS and how it started, it played a very important role in making sure that girls had the opportunity to go to school. My mum and many of my aunts came from SCGS, studied in SCGS, so there’s a real sense of history and tradition in my own family, I suppose it was people who started all-girls schools that actually firmly entrenched the idea that education for young women was important and specifically women. So all the missions schools that were started for girls sort of built very strongly on the idea that women could contribute back to society, even more if they were educated. Clearly SCGS perpetuates that idea and that tradition and that’s very important.
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Transition 5
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As a prominent figure in Singapore’s arts scene, Ms Janice Koh credits much of her background and foundation to her time in SCGS.
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Sound byte 3 from Ms Janice Koh
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I don’t have a strong sense that there was any overemphasis on one area. I think what I remember of SCGS in my time is that it was always about developing women who were confident and strong and able, both academically and in arts and sports to contribute back to society and to be of service to society which is very much our school motto and it was demonstrated in the way we were educated. So in a typical year, the calendar would be filled with many events that celebrated sporting achievements from gathering girls to make sure that we would support our teams at games and so on, but at the same time selling tickets to watch our dancers at Victoria Theatre and celebrating all important days like teachers’ day or children’s day with a concert and performance and even national day there would be performances. I felt that we placed importance on academics but it wasn’t the be-all and end-all of why we were being sent to school. We were being sent to school to develop women and nurture women who were all rounded, who were holistically educated so that we were ready to contribute back to society and the world when we went out and when we graduated. So that for me, I think, was very clear in terms of my memory of what SCGS gave to me.
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Conclusion
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Singapore Chinese Girls’ School – established to counter illiteracy and narrow-minded ignorance that was pervasive among Straits Chinese women in the early 1900s – has indeed achieved not only that, but much more, nurturing countless capable women who have contributed actively to home and nation.
It is hoped that the following generations of SCGS girls will build on this legacy, growing through the school’s vision of excellence and the countless opportunities and experiences she offers, to be well-read, discerning and confident women of character and relevance. Thank you.
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Key:
Laura
Jie Min
Qingru
Agana
Ruth
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~ Qingru, Laura, Jie Min, Agana, Ruth
