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The Catholic High Alumni would like to congratulate the CHS School Management Committee and the Principal, Teachers and Students of Catholic High School for having received approval from the Ministry of Education to participate in the Expanded Integrated Programme as announced on September 1st 2010.
I have spent a good part of my career looking at stock markets and investments and have always held the view that whilst hard clinical numbers drives investment decisions but to understand markets, you have to understand socio- psychological issues, in particular crowd psychology. Which is also why Ben Graham’s The Intelligent Investor / Security Analysis is as important as Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, translated into English in 1896.
Aggressively driving a creative school program and making sure the teachers are united in the same battle line provides the hard numbers for chest thumping. It also provides the basic launch pad for brand building. The leadership of CHS has executed that extremely well.
But do not kid yourselves. The road is hard. To produce these results require parents, students, teachers, the school, and her leadership, to constantly charge, attack, whilst at the same time making sure supply lines remain open and free flowing. Each and every success was fought inch-by-inch, step-by-step. Winnings basked in pain, sweat and blood. This destination is therefore far from easy to reach and the road even harder to maintain. CHS has done remarkably well.
Understanding crowd psychology allows us to understand the market. It is a market that is made up of CHS, the greater educational landscape, and the parents, teachers and students within and outside CHS. Understanding the market allows us to understand what its constituent’s think it needs and explains the constant amoeboid transient of students from school to school.
Over the last few years we have certainty witnessed an autonomous transfer of students from non-IP schools to IP schools, from CHS to schools providing a through train program. MOE’s decision to allow CHS, St Nicholas and SCGS to provide a through train to JC A-level program will tip the tide.
From the CHA’s perspective the Alumni body is also a winner.
Many non-CHS alumni have often mentioned that the spiritual interconnect between CHS old boys is extremely strong. Most unusual, it has been said, is that this interconnect is often grounded in neither self nor mutual gain, but in self and mutual respect. This is a Catholic High Tradition.
A fellow old boy is a brother and brothers must always watch for each other.
And traditions are strong.
“It is traditions that guides men and more especially so if they are in a crowd. The changes they can effect in their traditions with any ease, merely bear…upon names and outward forms.” - Gustave Le Bon.
“No example could better display the power of tradition on the mind of the crowds. The most redoubtable idols do not dwell in temples, or the most despotic tyrants in palaces; both the one and the other can be broken in an instance. But the invisible masters that reign in our innermost selves are safe from every effort at revolt, and only yield to the slow wearing away of centuries.” - Gustave Le Bon.
The emotional bond between Catholic High brothers is a bond forged over the flames of time. Many of us have spent ten / twelve years together as class/school mates. We have had more waking hours spent in school than at home, watching each other learn and grow. The forged bonds are therefore naturally strong. Will this tradition be reinforced or weakened with the introduction of IP?
With greater student retention the bonds of brotherhood will tighten; identity strengthened, the process of self-discovery made more definitive and robust. After all, 要先知己才能知比…
With a greater diversity in student life and flexibility in a double tracked integrated educational program, the product, whether after twelve years ending with an A Level certificate or ten years ending with an O level certificate, will be “… a gentleman and bilingual scholar of high integrity and robust character, who is passionate about life, learning and service to others”.
“亲爱忠诚,敬业乐群”
公教,双轨教育的新平台.
Congratulations again.
Kenneth Tang
President - CHA
(III) Expansion of the Integrated Programme
14The Integrated Programme (IP) was introduced to provide clearly university-bound students with a broader educational experience. The initial batches of IP4 graduates have performed well. The feedback from IP students is that they enjoy the learning environment which has allowed them to stretch their intellectual potential, while equipping them for self-directed learning. MOE will expand the IP so that more university-bound students will benefit from an enriched educational experience.
15MOE will expand the Integrated Programme to seven more secondary schools, namely, Victoria School, Cedar Girls’ Secondary School, Methodist Girls’ School, Catholic High School, CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, and St. Joseph’s Institution. These new IP schools will offer both IP and O-Level tracks, so that late-bloomers or those who find themselves better suited for the O-Level track can make lateral transfers. Temasek Junior College will also extend its four-year IP to a six-year programme beginning in Secondary 1. The expansion of the IP landscape, which will take effect from 2012 onwards, will allow our top talent to be nurtured in a more diverse group of schools.
16Victoria School and Cedar Girls’ Secondary School will partner Victoria Junior College, and Methodist Girls’ School will partner Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) to offer the IP. St. Joseph’s Institution will expand to offer a six-year programme leading to the International Baccalaureate.
17IP students from Catholic High School, CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School will progress to a new Government junior college to be set up by 2017. Details on the new junior college will be provided later.
18Students who wish to join the IP after some time in their secondary schools can also apply to these new IP schools at Secondary 3. There will continue to be sufficient access for non-IP students to enter the various junior colleges that will have IP student intakes.
19The details on the IP in the various schools are in Annex B (48kb .pdf).
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