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The Chinese High School (Singapore)

1919 establishments in British MalayaBukit TimahChinese-Singaporean cultureEducational institutions established in 1919Hwa Chong Institution
Hwa Chong Institution alumniIndependent schools in SingaporeSecondary schools in Singapore
The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building 1990s
The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building 1990s

The Chinese High School (Chinese: 南洋华侨中学; pinyin: Nányáng Huáqiáo Zhōngxué) was an independent school in Singapore offering secondary education. The school merged with Hwa Chong Junior College on 1 January 2005 to form the integrated Hwa Chong Institution. Founded on 21 March 1919, The Chinese High School was the first high school in Southeast Asia to cater to different dialect groups among overseas Chinese in the region. After Singapore gained independence in 1965, the school came under the purview of the Ministry of Education and was accorded the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) status in 1979. It has the unique distinction of having the Independent School status in 1988, a scheme that the ministry perceived had proven successful and was extended to other top schools in Singapore. The Chinese High School remained as one of the best performing schools in Singapore, both in academic achievements and extracurricular activities.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Chinese High School (Singapore) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Chinese High School (Singapore)
Bukit Timah Road, Singapore Bukit Timah

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N 1.32654 ° E 103.803491 °
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Hwa Chong Institution

Bukit Timah Road 661
269734 Singapore, Bukit Timah
Singapore
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Phone number
Hwa Chong Institution

call+6564683955

Website
hci.edu.sg

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The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building 1990s
The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building 1990s
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Hwa Chong Institution
Hwa Chong Institution

Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) is an independent secondary educational institution in Bukit Timah, Singapore. Formed by the merger of The Chinese High School (1919–2004) and Hwa Chong Junior College (1974–2005) in 2005, it provides secondary education for boys only from Years 1 to 4, and pre-university education for both boys and girls in Years 5 and 6. Since 2005, HCI and its affiliated school Nanyang Girls' High School have offered a six-year Integrated Programme, which allows students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations and proceed to take the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examinations at the end of Year 6. Its name "Hwa Chong" ("Hua Zhong" or "华中") is an abbreviation of The Chinese High School's Chinese name, "Hua Qiao Zhong Xue" or "华侨中学". A Ministry of Education-designated FutureSchool, HCI operates under the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) for bilingualism, and offers the Integrated Programme and the Gifted Education Programme. HCI has been a top feeder school for international students to the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. The institution is also a member of Strategic Alliance of Global Educators, Strategic Educational Alliance of Southeast Asia and the Global Learning Alliance which involves some of the world's most innovative schools from the highest performing nations, including Australia, Canada, China, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, and the United States. HCI has also forged partnerships with educational institutions across five continents, including cross-border research collaboration with the Loudoun Academy of Science in Virginia and Westport Schools District in Connecticut.

The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building
The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building

The Chinese High School Clock Tower Building, a gazetted national monument in Singapore, is situated in the campus of the integrated Hwa Chong Institution, which incorporates The Chinese High School and Hwa Chong Junior College.Standing at 31 metres tall atop a small knoll on which parts of the campus was built on, the building was completed as part of the campus of The Chinese High School in 1925, funded by generous donations from the Chinese community leaders. It served as an imposing landmark for the Bukit Timah area where it is surrounded by relatively low-rise private housing estates. It was used in tactical military situations during the Pacific War in World War II. Its strategic location atop a hill gave any troops stationed in it a good view of the island. It was used by the Allied defenders during the Battle of Singapore, as well as during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, it was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army for the purpose of surveillance. The tower's four-faced clock was destroyed and removed during World War II, and was restored in the early 1970s, with replacements donated by Seiko. The clock tower went through a series of restoration and expansion in the 1990s, in which a new library was added.On 19 March 1999, two days before the 80th anniversary of the school, the clock tower was gazetted as a national monument, to mark the significance of the institution as the first Chinese-medium secondary school to be built in Southeast Asia catering to the Overseas Chinese by its founder, Mr Tan Kah Kee.