an ex-student view

Being an ex student, I feel that the political and financial doctrines of my ex-secondary school leave a lot to be desired. Due to its authoritarian and rather right-wing nature, students fail to freely express their views, much less being acted upon. A school behind closed doors, much previously unknown corruption and exploitation is currently being slowly exposed.


Our school is a, government aided, all boys secondary school. It is also under the SAP (Special Assistance Programme) and education ministry of the Roman Catholic Church. It is also in a rather remote area, being on a hilltop with quite a distance from local Housing development board (HDB) estates, unlike regular government schools. In its early days, from its first building in 1967 to the rise of power of Bro. Anthony in 1984, it saw major renovation and changes to its buildings. Under Brother Chanel, the principal of that time, the second decade saw steady development. With the completion of the second phase, Bro. Chanel decided to proceed with the next project – a 5-storey building for the primary section. This marked the third phase of Bro. Chanel's development plan for the school. However, it was not until the end of 1974 that he was granted permission to launch this project. Construction began soon after, and the building was completed in October 1975. It was built at a cost of about $1.1 million. This new building was officially declared open on 11 September 1976. After the passing of Chanel, many short lived principals took power, followed by the incumbent principal Brother Anthony Tan (1984 to date).


However, since the rise of Brother Anthony, there has not been significant renovations and changes, despite the massive increase of influx of funds given to the school via both donations and the MOE. The school website showing its financial information stated that the school has a total expenditure of $4213 in 2005 alone, along with incoming receipts of $180,167 in that same year. The massive profit of funds and the little expenditure in the school funds shown in the statistics clearly show the disparity and the lack of spending in the school, resulting in the lack of progress and renovation. The school clearly does not want to spend money, and is saving all the money for other uses..

The school hasnt in fact gave us anything for free as a token of appreciations. We were expected to spend, spend and spend, no matter how cheap and small those things are. This includes fruit day, the Marist secondary one oreientation file and many other things.

ever since a withdrawal scandal occured in 2007 with the suspension of the contract in acquiring drinks for the sch canteen.
the canteen has seen the only drink avaialble to be 100 plus, other vending machines selling other drinks broke down frequently.
the school has done nothing to change this. It took an incredile 3 and a half years of waiting before a new cafe emerged which sold clean, fresh 100 plus, much to our delight.

Also, issues whoch have not been solved includes the handphone rule. This hated rule has still been around and nothing has been done to change it technically.

I really hope changes can be made for my juniors and have a more welcoming environment for them to study in