Keep Victoria an All-Boys School

We, the undersigned, are concerned old boys of Victoria School (VS). Reports in the press that the school has applied to the Education Ministry to end its 129-year-old tradition as an all-boys institution (the last such government school in Singapore) and to start admitting girls alongside boys has prompted us to come forward and make our voices heard. We stress our respect for the work of school leaders and teachers, and share their concern for the wellbeing of VS. As invested stakeholders, we seek to engage and work with them to contribute to VS and to be involved in major discussions about its future.

According to a New Paper article on 17 Aug 2005, the School leadership believes that going co-educational will raise the quality of its intake. It hopes that this will let it become the main feeder school for the Victoria JC IP, as the Raffles and Hwa Chong schools have done. In the article, the principal of VJC also proposes replacing the word sons in the chorus of the Victorian Anthem, which goes Victoria, thy sons are we.

We strongly urge the VS leadership and management to carefully reconsider its proposal and to recognise the strengths of our all-boys tradition:
* There have been many studies pointing to the benefits of single-sex schools. Several other countries are turning away from promoting co-ed schools to retaining some single-sex schools.
* Single-sex schools are a rarity in Singapore and enjoy the perception among parents and students that they are superior learning environments.
* An education in the all-boys environment at VS is a special experience, which engenders a strong sense of camaraderie amongst the boys and results in strong, lasting ties of support for the school long after leaving.
* While aiming for excellence, we should not forget our other strengths and roles. Bright boys from all income, language and religious groups go to VS to get a high quality education and build bonds with each other. VS is an excellent example of meritocracy, upward social mobility and inter-cultural integration in a secular environment.

We further urge the leadership and management of VS to recognise our concerns about co-educational admissions:
* It may result in a drop in the quality of students applying to VS, as the school will have lost an important part of its distinctiveness and appeal to students as well as parents (alumni and otherwise).
* It will fundamentally transform the identity of the school and may weaken alumni ties and support.
* It distracts attention from the fundamentals of a good education, that more significantly impact the school's quality, i.e. the teaching/learning environment, leadership, teachers, etc. Real improvements cannot be quickly and easily bought by simply making the shift to co-ed admissions.
* In addition, the proposal to amend the Victorian Anthem suggests a lack of concern for our identity, heritage and the sentiments of old boys.

We urge all members of the Victorian community to come together to support VS in this challenging time:
* We call on old boys to make their views known about the proposed changes. We also urge them to contribute more actively to VS, e.g. by joining the Old Victorians Association (OVA) [http://ova.org.sg/] and/or its online discussion groups. Old boys can contribute more to VS in many ways, in terms of time, ideas, skills and resources. We must use this challenge to mobilise the alumni community to play a more active role in supporting the future development of the school.
* We call on the school leadership and management to engage with concerned old boys to better exploit our support and concern for the school and to involve us in the debate over its future. We urge the school and alumni organisation to exploit this challenge and the widespread concern it has generated amongst old boys as an chance to reconnect with old boys and to use us as an asset to address current problems facing the school.
* We call for more transparency in the deliberations over the future of the school, in particular changes to the all-boys admissions, to the school anthem and any other areas affecting the identity of the school. We support the proposal by the OVA for a forum for old boys, to update us about challenges facing VS, to receive feedback from old boys and to discuss possible courses of action and opportunities for greater alumni involvement in the school.