Raffles Schools Take 20 of 21 Top Places

THE STRAITS TIMES

March 1, 2005
Raffles schools take 20 of 21 top places
For RI, RGS, results are fitting swansong; institutions to drop exam from this year

By Maria Almenoar

THE Raffles school family has enjoyed a virtual clean sweep of top honours in their O-level swansong. When the results were released yesterday, all but one of the 21 O-level students who posted 10 A1 scores came from the two schools.

For both Raffles Institution (RI) and Raffles Girls' School (RGS), which from this year are dropping the O levels, it was a fitting farewell. Both schools will now solely operate the Integrated Programme, which allows students to skip the O levels and take their A levels in Raffles Junior College (RJC) in the sixth year.

Another school saying goodbye to the O levels is The Chinese High School, now called Hwa Chong Institution.

With students considered almost certain to qualify for university, these through-train programmes have been designed so that students can spend more time developing their intellectual curiosity and leadership qualities than preparing for two major examinations.

For many of the top students, helping their school end with a 'big bang' was a motivating factor. Said Liang Lehui, daughter of a senior manager and housewife, who scored 10 A1s and is now studying in RJC: 'It was rather stressful knowing that we were the full-stop that would end our school's good record in the O levels.

'But it's that stress that kept my classmates and I going, because we really wanted to help our school do well in our last year of the O levels.'

Overall, the school said its results had improved. It produced the top Eurasian student, Louise Heyzer, the top Indian student, Sandhya Krishnan, who was also one of the students with 10 A1s, and one of the two top Malay students, Amanda Zain.

At RI, the school's mean subject grade of 1.62 matched its 2003 performance.

Said the school's deputy headmaster, Mr S. Magendiran: 'The performance of the cohort was an excellent way to round off our consistently good performances... But now it's time for us to move on and prepare our students for what the future holds.'

Scoring 11 A1s

· From RGS: Chuah Yuxin, Gao Yuan, Han Huiqing, Kang Zi Han (back row third from right), Inez Khoo, Liang Lehui, Liu Chen, Yvonne Sim, Wendy Teo, Wee Shu Min, Xu Ding Jiao and Sandhya Krishnan.

· From RI: Chia Bing Shao, Eric Ang, Mok Zhun Rui, Mok Zhun Wei, Ouyang Hongyue, Pang Jiang Yan, Tan Chor Kiang, Wee Liang Yi.

· From Dunman High School: Pang Mei Yu