SINGAPORE – Eight junior colleges (JC) are set to collapse into four in 2019, in the largest school merger exercise in the past decade affecting a total of 28 schools, the Education Ministry (MOE) announced on Thursday (April 20).
This exercise will also see six secondary schools merging into three, while another 14 primary schools will be consolidated into seven.
With Singapore’s declining birth rates over the past two decades leading to a similar decline in demand for school places, MOE said it is taking the unprecedented step of merging JCs for the first time as it expects JC enrolment to drop by some 20 per cent from 2010, with 3,200 empty JC places expected by 2019.
In planning the JC mergers, the MOE said overall geographical coverage across Singapore was an additional consideration, on top of the schools’ enrolment size, geographical proximity, suitability of merger partners and infrastructure capacity.
In the north-east, Serangoon JC will merge with Anderson JC, with the merged school to continue operations in the latter’s Yio Chu Kang campus.
Innova JC will merge with Yishun JC (YJC), and the consolidated school will operate out of YJC’s Yishun Ring Road location in the north.
In the east, Meridian JC will merge with Tampines JC, with the merged school moving into Meridian’s campus in Pasir Ris.
And in the west, Jurong JC will merge with Pioneer JC, with the consolidated campus to be located at Pioneer’s in Teck Whye.
From next year, ahead of the merger, Serangoon, Innova, Tampines and Jurong JCs will not take in any new JC1 students. Instead, all four will see their existing cohort through to graduation to minimise disruption to students.
The sites of the merged schools are chosen based on accessibility to transport and quality of infrastructure, the ministry said, adding that names of the merged schools will be announced at the later date.
With some of these JCs having very low enrollment numbers, the decision was made to merge them, said MOE. However, it pointed out that the JC route remains an attractive pathway, with the proportion of JC-eligible students choosing JCs as their first choice remaining stable in the last five years.
The move to merge JCs come against the backdrop of falling student numbers since 2014. Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng revealed in a parliamentary reply last April that JC enrolment has fallen from 30,200 in 2014 to 27,100 last year. He said then that falling cohort sizes in recent years are expected to continue to “trend down” over the next few years, and this would have implications for JCs.
The falling birth rates and corresponding decline in student population will also see another batch of secondary schools being merged in 2019, following last year’s announcement of what was then the biggest merger of 22 secondary schools between 2017 and 2018. Prior to that, the MOE had merged six pairs of secondary schools – two pairs in 2011 and another four pairs in 2016.
The schools to be merged this time are Shuqun Secondary School with Yuhua Secondary School, East Spring Secondary School with East View Secondary School and Hong Kah Secondary School with Jurongville Secondary School.
The 14 primary schools to be consolidated are East View Primary School with Junyuan Primary School, Balestier Hill Primary School with Bendemeer Primary School, Da Qiao Primary School with Jing Shan Primary School, Damai Primary School with East Coast Primary School, Coral Primary School with White Sands Primary School, Casuarina Primary School with Loyang Primary School as well as Cedar Primary School with MacPherson Primary School.
However, there will be a new primary school – Fern Green Primary School – which will open in Sengkang next year.
The ministry said the fall in live births in Singapore over the last two decades has resulted in a corresponding decline in overall demand for school places at the national level. The geographical distribution of the school-going population has also shifted from more mature estates to newer housing estates, leading to higher demand in the latter.
MOE also stressed that no staff will be retrenched amid the mergers. They will either be posted to the merged schools, redeployed to other schools or to the ministry’s headquarters.
Some teachers may also be deployed to teach at primary and secondary schools, added the ministry.
Teachers who move across levels will go through bridging courses which will equip them with the pedagogical skills and content knowledge to teach at the primary and secondary schools they are posted to.
