Victoria School - Definition and Overview

This article may require editing to conform to the neutral point of view policy. A Wikipedia user has nominated this article to be checked for its neutrality. Currently there may not be a specific dispute, but the content may need discussion on the talk page.

Victoria School is an all-boys government secondary school in Singapore. It is currently located at Siglap Link, one kilometre away from its affliated junior college, Victoria Junior College. It is quite a widely held opinion of many that the pupils of Victoria School (more commonly abbreviated to VS by a large majority of students, parents and teachers) used to be on par with the sudents of Singapore's top school, Raffles Institution, in both academic and sporting fields, up till the late 1980's. However after that, it was quite apparent from the gradual decrease in rank in the school's ranking list of the Ministry Of Education that the calibre of Victoria School's students began to slide.

Academic performance

Unfortunately it could not attain independent status in the early 1990s, which would have afforded it greater resources. This, coupled with what was deemed 'poor leadership' by some in the school, has led to a fall in the Ministry of Education rankings table for 'O' Level results from the mid-1990s.

Victoria School became only the second government school after Dunman High School to have a Gifted Education Programme department in Singapore when it started with one GEP class in 2001. The school achieved good progress in GEP until 2004, when its enrolment in GEP was deemed too small to form one class. This was widely believed to be due to the absence of an integrated programme in the school. Similarly, Dunman High School had its enrolment cut from two classes to one in 2004.

In 2004, Victoria School tried, and failed to, attain approval from MOE to start a four-year integrated programme with its sister college, Victoria Junior College. VJC ended up going alone with the integrated programme, which will commence in 2005.

The wave of optimism surrounding the school's 2003 move to Siglap has subsided, given a relatively barren 2004 in terms of sporting and academic achievement. VS won only one national title in Cross Country. Also, despite the absence of top schools offering the integrated programme in the revised school rankings for 'O' Level results, VS, to the surprise and shock of students and old boys alike, found itself in unfamiliar territory in band three, amongst less established and less regarded institutions. Given how the top tier of Singapore schools have been omitted from this exercise, much has been said that VS becoming a third-tier institution.

Academic complacency

Students who enter VS are of a relatively high calibre, but it has often been said that this pedigree fails to translate into good GCE Ordinary Level grades. While its intake scores from the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) is on par with the schools like Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), its results mirror those of schools which are ranked lower, such as Temasek Secondary School. Teachers have often remarked that there is an air of complacency amongst its students, who take it for granted that their good PSLE results would translate into similarly solid 'O' Level grades.

Demographic make-up

Unlike most top schools in Singapore, VS stands out for having a student demographic that most accurate reflects that of the nation at large. While ethnic Malay students are under-represented at top independent schools and Special Assistance Plan schools, this is not the case in VS. Ethnic Chinese Victorians come from both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking homes. Victorians come from a good variety of socio-economic backgrounds, and have on their enrolment numerous Southeast Asian and Chinese scholars. People have remarked, and most rightly so, that VS is a microcosm of Singapore society.

School spirit

Victoria School prides itself on its strong esprit de corps. Student leaders will start cheering for the school during sporting events and other important events. However, some feel that there is an absence of a culture of excellence in academics or sport. Instead, students may prefer uniformed group activities like scouting or the National Cadet Corps. VS excels in cross country and track and field, but has never really seriously challenged the Chinese High School's stranglehold on the latter, despite having won the C Division in 2000.

English language

The standard of English language in Victoria has fallen in recent years. For two years (2002-2003), English Literature was not offered at GCE 'O' Level. Drama in VS has also suffered in recent years, with the Dramafests being of a relatively lower standard. Although they were national 'A' Division champions in Debate in 1998, the debate team of Victoria School went out of existence. An attempt to revive debate in VS was started in 2004, but results have not been very good; in the lower 'C' Division, VS was eliminated in the quarter finals.

There are rumours that Victoria School will go co-ed in 2006. Old Boys tend to oppose this move, even in the past.

Victoria Hall

Victoria Hall is VS's newly built hostel just next to the school. It is home to about 500 boarders of different nationalities such as Malaysians, Indonesians, PR Chinese, Vietnamese and Thais, staying and living together and bringing together a melting pot of cultures. However, the majority of boarders in the hostel are the PRCs.

The hostel pride itself as being the only hostel in Singapore that is beside the sea, allowing the boarders to have a bay view and at the same time, access sporting facilities in the East Coast Park, which is just a stone's throw away. Most of the boarders are mainly from Victoria Junior College and Victoria School. However, there is an influx of students from other schools recently such as Temasek Junior College and Temasek Secondary School.

External link

• Official site of Victoria School (http://www.vs.moe.edu.sg/)