National Junior College 4.31

National Junior College is the first Junior College to be established in Singapore. Founded in 1969, National Junior College offers a two-year course for pre-university students and a six-year Integrated Programme, both leading up to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level qualification.HistoryFirst announced by pioneering Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in May 1965 as a "super secondary boarding school", the National Junior College was the first specialised co-educational government school established in independent Singapore for top pre-university students.It was announced in December 1965 by then Minister for Education Ong Pang Boon that a centralised "junior college" system would be established in order to optimise the use of teachers and laboratory facilities and to create more educational opportunities for pre-university students. This system replaced the pre-university education that are formerly conducted at various middle schools across the state. In 1967, construction began on the first institution that operate under this arrangement, which was named the National Junior College. On 20 January 1969, an inaugural assembly was held with the pioneer batch of 572 students. The college was officially declared open by pioneering Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on 14 May 1970.Unlike other pre-university schools of the time, students were given the freedom and flexibility to opt for their subjects under the college’s lecture and tutorial system. This resulted in over 40 different subject combinations. Besides General Paper, which was compulsory, other subjects offered to students included Art, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English Literature, Geography, History and Mathematics.