21 April 2017
Fourteen pairs of schools will be merged in 2019, including four pairs of junior colleges. Serangoon, Tampines, Innova and Jurong junior colleges will be merged with Anderson, Meridian, Yishun and Pioneer junior colleges respectively. With this merger, the total number of junior colleges in Singapore will be reduced from 23 to 19.
According to the Ministry of Education, the school mergers are in response to Singapore’s falling birth rate, which has resulted in declining student intake over the years. Junior college intake is expected to drop to 12,800 in 2019, compared with 16,000 in 2010.
The Education Ministry stressed that no teachers will be retrenched as a direct result of the school mergers. Those affected will continue teaching in a public school or be reassigned to the ministry headquarters.
Serangoon, Tampines, Innova and Jurong junior colleges will not take in a fresh cohort of students next year (2018) to reduce the impact of the pending merger on freshmen.
In merging the junior colleges, effort was made to maintain a good spread of them across the country.
The mergers will enable schools to continue to offer a broad range of educational programmes and co-curricular activities to students.