Eunoia JC set up to partner three secondary schools: Puthucheary
SINGAPORE — The new Eunoia Junior College (EJC) was set up because there was “no suitable junior college” at the time to partner three secondary schools for the Integrated Programme. The 2010 decision was made even though the Government was aware that cohort sizes would fall, said Senior Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary on Monday (July 3).
He was responding to Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament Pritam Singh’s question on why the Ministry of Education (MOE) did not convert one or more of the four JCs set to be discontinued so that it could offer the same programme planned for Eunoia JC.
The Government announced in April that Serangoon, Jurong, Tampines and Innova JCs would be subsumed by Anderson, Pioneer, Meridian and Yishun JCs, respectively.
EJC was set up to enable students from Catholic High, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School to proceed to JC without taking the GCE ‘O’ Level exams and have a broader curriculum under the Integrated Programme.
Dr Puthucheary said the Education Ministry had, in 2010, decided to set up Eunoia JC, and Crest and Spectra secondary schools – which offer a special Normal (Technical) curriculum – to provide more options in the education landscape.
On Eunoia, he said: “The suitability of a JC to partner its feeder secondary schools to offer the Integrated Programme is an important consideration to ensure that the programme offered will be meaningful for the students. At the time, there was no suitable JC to partner these three secondary schools.”
He said the ministry cannot allow any single factor, such as the emotional distress felt by alumni of schools discontinued, to completely override the prime concern of developing an education system that will best serve the next generation. Even so, the MOE will try to minimise any distress caused when it merges or discontinues schools, he added.
