Independent School

DEFINITION

A school with flexibility to decide on education matters, such as school fees, school curriculum, academic and non-academic programmes.

ETYMOLOGY

• In 1985, Singapore’s first Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong proposed to let schools have more autonomy, and let principals have greater authority in the hiring of teachers, planning of school curriculum and choosing of textbooks.
• In 1988, 3 government-assisted schools—Anglo-Chinese school, The Chinese High School (now Hwa Chong Institution) and St. Joseph's Institution successfully applied to become independent schools.
• In 1990, Raffles Institution became the first government school to successfully apply to become an Independent School.
• Independent schools can set their own school fees. Since the school fees of independent schools are higher than those of government or government-assisted schools, the government has also introduced a Financial Assistance Scheme to provide students from low-income families the opportunity to attend independent schools.
• In 2004, the Ministry of Education launched the Integrated Programme, which allows outstanding students to participate in the six-year secondary and junior college courses without having to take the GCE O-Level examinations, and ultimately obtain a GCE A-Level examination certificate or a specialist diploma. Six independent schools have launched the Integrated Programme in their syllabus.

SAMPLE SENTENCE

The Ministry of Education has introduced a series of measures to ensure that the highly sought-after schools remain accessible. Minister Ong Ye Kung said, independent schools’ principals are actively welcoming exceptional primary school students from different schools. Students from low and middle-income families can also apply for the Financial Assistance Scheme to help with the fees for independent schools. (Lianhe Zaobao, 28/12/2018)

TERMS USED IN OTHER REGIONS

直接资助计划中学 (Hong Kong)