PENG CHEE HIGH SCHOOL (Government Assistance)

"Mr Poh Ber Liak To ask the Minister for Education whether the Government intends to give any assistance to Peng Ghee High School for development, and if he will give details."

Pursuant to Standing Order No. 20 (2), the Minister for Education supplied the following answer:-

2. "The answer depends on whether the School Management can fulfil the requirements as laid down in the Government Grant-in-Aid Regulations 1957, with which all schools are expected to comply. For example, the school must, among other things, hold a legal title to the land and have the amount of its own contribution in hand. If the School is in a position to comply with the Regulations. I see no reason why its application for capital grant for building cannot be considered together with others.

As a matter of fact, Pin Ghee High School is more a Primary than a Secondary school. In 1957 it began with one Secondary I class; by 1964, it had only 6 Secondary classes. The academic standard achieved has been appalling: in 1964, out of 36 candidates who sat for the Government Secondary IV Examination, only 6 passed, of whom 5 passed with Grade III and 1 with Grade I certificate. Since 1957, when this school began its first Secondary I class, it has been encouraged to improve its school buildings and equipment. The Government approved in 1962 capital grants amounting to $5,241 for the school to purchase science equipment and furniture in order to help the school develop gradually its secondary classes into a proper secondary school. But unfortunately, the Management Committee of the school not only had not been able to make any improvements, but also allowed the school administration and discipline to deteriorate. For instance, the school, under its former Management, was known to have sold textbooks at list price, thus making a profit of some $9,000 a year from students, and yet it owed several bookshops a total of $18,000 in September 1964. No serious attempts had ever been made to improve the school buildings, which still consist of 7 blocks of wooden structures with asbestos and attap roofing. Repeated requests by the health authorities to improve its health requirements had not been fully complied with. Only one wooden plank room is available for an all-purpose laboratory; Chemistry, Physics and Biology experiments are all conducted in it. The secondary department of the school is notorious for indiscipline. In November 1964, a pupil was caught intimidating other pupils to subscribe to Barisan Sosialis Party Fund. More recently, school monitors, two of whom were known to have attended meetings organised by the Barisan Sosialis for its cadres, defied the authority of the principal and engaged in producing and distributing illegal handbills giving a distorted picture of Government policy towards Chinese education.

Unless the School Management Committee can work selflessly and genuinely for the future well-being of the school, I do not see how all the present indiscipline, poor management and political manipulation by the Barisan Sosialis are going to help develop this school.

Work has already begun on the construction of a secondary school at 10 m.s. Changi Road at a cost of $1.1 million plus an additional $250,000 for furniture and equipment. This school will be completed next year in time for the enrolment of students in 1967. It will cater for students living in the Kampong Chai Chi, Changi, Tampines, Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong areas who now have to travel long distances to attend school. Before the completion of this school, if parents living in the village nearby Pin Ghee School find it inconvenient to send their children to attend secondary schools elsewhere next year, the Government is quite prepared to open secondary classes at Changkat Primary School situated at 10 m.s. Changi Road to eater for this need until the new secondary school is ready."

The following Question for Oral Answer stood on the Order Paper of 20th December, 1965:-