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Heading the Old
School
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Foretaste of Educational Leadership By the 1960s, the old School had begun to evolve with the changing political and social climate. Organisationally, ACS was required to merge the morning and afternoon sessions into one school. Until then, the afternoon session was known as the Oldham Methodist School which was the re-named Anglo-Chinese Continuation School. It was a convenient way to post the weaker students to the afternoon session. But it took a number of years before morning and afternoon sessions became truly integrated – in 1973, when the morning session was composed of the upper secondary and Pre-University classes, and the afternoon session the lower secondary (I & II). It was welcomed by the boys as the largely artificial distinction was broken for good. Although there was an initial negative effect on School Certificate results, ACS lived with it and, in due course, caught up. I was appointed Senior Assistant in charge of the un-restructured afternoon session in January 1972, when the incumbent, Mr Gan Kee Tian, retired from the school. In addition to my responsibilities in the afternoon, continued to complete teaching the Pre-U2 History syllabus that year. Although it was quite tiring, having to straddle both sessions, but being Senior Assistant gave me my first practical experience of educational administration and its challenges. The experience in supervising teachers and pupils, as well as the facilities, provided me with valuable insights, as I was the only senior staff member on campus after the morning session had left for the day. In this capacity, I presided at chapel, led in the devotions every afternoon before lessons began, prepared time-tables (a chore that personally took me most of the Christmas vacation), assigned teachers to their subjects and classes, taught English Language, met parents on a variety of issues, besides looking after a host of major and minor matters which a school normally encounters, albeit for the second half of the day. It was a position for which there were no applicants: I was simply appointed.
Student morale in the afternoon session was, to begin with, relatively modest – the boys were from the bottom half of the cohort whose self-worth can be imagined. This had a knock-on effect on the teachers as well. Although efforts were made to counteract this with a variety of sporting activities and clubs, the atmosphere was unhealthy. If anything, there was a reverse pride in wanting to “disprove” their image. What negative effect it had on the “ACS spirit” was anybody’s guess. The restructuring of the School in 1973 was a significant step towards rectifying an unsatisfactory situation about which many had complained, until the Board of Governors decided to reorganise the school. The effect was telling: for me, it was easier to manage the younger boys and build up school spirit. The teachers took somewhat longer to get into their stride.This observation is based on my personal experience in teaching some of the weakest students in Secondary II, whose motivation was low, but I hoped that after several months with them, their attitudes would improve. I have dwelt on this issue at some length because I believe it was a clear lesson in understanding the effects of negative labelling where only the “best” are identified, leaving “the rest” to fend for themselves. Heading the ACS Towards the end of 1976, for me a very busy and stressful year with my direct involvement in the impending separation of the Methodist Church in Singapore from Malaysia, and the passing of my wife, the Pre-University classes prepared to move to Dover Road, home of ACJC. It was a wrenching exercise that meant that most of the senior subject teachers accompanied the Pre-U students, leaving behind the rest of the school. The task of organising the teachers and the rest of the school into an institution worthy of its proud traditions eventually fell on me after a contrived “selection” interview. I recognised that it was an honour – and a big challenge – to head the ACS in a tradition pioneered by Rev William F. Oldham.The character of the School had begun to change – as it had several times since its early days. Functioning again as a boys’ school with only secondary classes brought it back to pre-1950 days but with a difference: the number of classes in each level was increased until all the classrooms were utilised to satisfy the heavy demand for places in the ACS. Within three or four years, there were 14 classes at each level, making around 600 in each cohort, and a total enrolment of around 2,400 with a Senior Assistant in each session. The School seemed to be bursting at its seams, but we had little choice as the demand for places was heavy. Adding to the problem of congestion, was the difficulty of recruiting graduate teachers as Singapore was experiencing commercial and industrial expansion that made the teaching profession less competitive in the job market. Recruitment was an ad hoc affair, depending on informal contacts and the Ministry of Education which had a limited number of candidates. Things were not made any easier because not all applicants were considered acceptable. Despite this, we somehow managed to fill vacancies as and when they occurred. However, a problem which may not be appreciated was a shortage of men teachers for Extracurricular Activities like rugby and football, and for the increasing number of uniformed groups which the School was obliged to provide. Nonetheless, we managed to pull through, and each activity performed well in its operations besides winning competitions and honours. Several issues related to the evolving educational system began to take shape during my term of office. One of these was the concern by Government to improve the standard of English language education in the Chinese stream schools, particularly the Special Assistance Plan schools. At a meeting with the Prime Minister held in the PUB auditorium, English stream schools were challenged to help by accepting guest students to sit in our classes to take part in the lessons conducted in English several times a week. The experiment illustrates the concern of the Government to create excellent schools in the Chinese stream comparable to the English language premier schools.Another development was in the extracurricular field, particularly in sporting activities, supervised by the ECA Centre and by four Zone Councils which were responsible for promoting them among secondary schools. Into the South Zone, I found myself actively immersed in helping the Ministry to ensure that the roster of sporting activity was carried out effectively. Being in an area where many of the top schools were then situated, the quality of the participation was also exceptional. Appointed Chairman of South Zone, I was pleased to be associated with the Principals of the established schools in the city in monthly meetings which were not only organisational, but social, schools taking turns to host them. We organised inter-school sporting events, and awarded colours at the end of each year to outstanding sportsmen and sportswomen, as well as evaluating the quality of the ECA programmes.
An interesting and educative experience was when the Minister decided to form an advisory Council that comprised Ministry officials, civil servants, Inspectors of Schools and certain Principals to discuss and advise on educational policy and I was appointed to serve on it for several years. We used to meet monthly, after a number of papers were circulated beforehand and which formed the basis of discussions on policy issues. Participants were expected to provide informed and critical comment. Arranged in a four-sided square, there was little room to hide, and it was a real test of the participants’ understanding of the issues before us. In many ways, it was held like a university viva voce at which our views were questioned and debated. To return to the School itself, one of the more celebrated issues which the ACS faced was that of ‘snobbery’ that surfaced in 1979. It became a cause célèbre because it was the one school which had been singled out for public attention. The Principals of all four units of ACS were called up and told to do something to deal with a certain unhealthy complex which had manifested itself, typically, in chauffeur-driven luxury cars, expensive watches and jewellery and conspicuous spending habits supported by generous allowances, all of which projected a poor image. In a separate meeting with the President of the ACSOBA, we were requested to mount a ‘campaign’ to deal with the problem – as if attitudes could be so easily changed. I personally could not understand why ACS had been singled out for special attention, when with successful economic growth, the problems associated with affluence had begun to affect more Singaporeans negatively. Efforts were made to educate the students accompanied with some administrative force – but with what long-term effect, few could be certain.Perhaps a clue to the whole episode may be found in a subsequent meeting with the Minister, who had summoned me to ask if ACS still taught ‘Religious Knowledge’. On being told that it had been stopped around 1968 at the request of the Ministry itself, he expressed disappointment, and requested that I should re-introduce a syllabus among Methodist schools. I duly organised a writing seminar for representative teachers, and within the few weeks before the new academic year, it was produced and satisfactorily introduced and continued to be used for more than a year. However, despite warnings that the syllabus was knowledge-based and that there was to be no proselytising, the overzealous efforts of a few teachers produced a negative reaction resulting in its being set aside, and in its place, under the new Minister, a moral education programme developed under the guidance of Dr Balhatchet and suitable for all schools was introduced. The ‘anti-snobbery’ campaign could thus be understood in context.
The other facility was the Sports Complex which had been completed in 1968 and provided the ACS family of schools with a swimming pool and gymnasium. Since it was relatively new, minor maintenance was straight forward and ably carried out by the team of workers and lifeguards. However, the technical expertise needed to maintain the pumps, the quality of the water (samples of which had to be submitted for periodic ph and microbial analysis) and the overall cleanliness of the surroundings – all had to be of a higher level than what the casual observer might expect. As Principal, I had to take responsibility for this important sports facility enjoyed by present and Old Boys. My direct relationship with the School came to a fairly sudden end when the Board of Governors informed me that at retirement age, I would no longer continue as Principal, but would be welcome to remain as a teacher. At the time, I thought the decision precipitate, with no explanation or discussion. It was then that I informed the Ministry of Education and was offered a posting in the Ministry beginning the first week of January 1984. Thus, my active involvement with the ACS which had begun as a pupil in 1937 came to a close, and new challenges awaited me at the Ministry and later, as Director of the Regional Language Centre (RELC). . |
Perhaps one outstanding event in which we were involved was organising a Southeast Asian Schools Sports meet which was held at the National Stadium and had all the trappings of a mini-Olympics,
As Principal of the ACS, I faced some of the most vexing problems in maintaining the buildings and their facilities at considerable cost – especially since very little had been done for a long time. The Lee Kuo Chuan Auditorium was one example – while its lofty ceiling was meant to facilitate badminton games, it was a big headache to try to repair the lighting fixtures embedded therein, and trying to deal with a leaking roof was another. In these and other associated problems, I had the good fortune to have the assistance of the father of one of our students who was a contractor who obligingly came to the rescue when called upon to help.