21 January 2018
The Ministry of Education has announced that the four merged junior colleges will take on both the colleges’ original names, where for each pair, the name of the older JC will come first.
Anderson JC and Serangoon JC will be known as Anderson Serangoon JC, and Innova JC and Yishun JC will become Yishun Innova JC. Meridian JC and Tampines JC will be Tampines Meridian JC and Jurong JC and Pioneer JC will be called Jurong Pioneer JC.
Four of the current junior college principals will continue as principal-designates of the merged JCs.
This is the first time junior colleges have to be merged. The MOE had said it was due to Singapore’s declining birth rate.
Ms Liew Wei Li, MOE’s deputy director-general of education (schools), said that in arriving at the final decision regarding the names, the ministry considered factors such as the schools’ history and heritage. She did not elaborate on the substantial time it took to decide to simply pair those names up.