: About us

On 24th September 1947, a meeting was held with an agenda to start a Gujarati School. The meeting was held at 79 Waterloo Street. Thirteen firm’s representatives were present. 

  

They elected:

 

Other members present

 

6. Mr. Nanalalbhai Shah

7. Mr. Kanubhai Mehta

8. Mr. Ravilal Mehta

9. Mr. Hiralalbhai Maniar

10. Mr. Panachandbhai Doshi

11. Mr. Natverlal Mehta

12. Mr. Kripashanker Kothari

 

They were requested to raise funds for the school and to arrange opening of the Gujarati School on Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd October, 1947. The classes would be conducted at 79 Waterloo Street. It was also decided that Mr. R. Jumabhoy be invited to officiate the opening of the School. 

 

The School was open on 2nd Oct. 1947 by Mr. R. Jumabhoy and there was very good attendance. The school fees charged were $3.00 per student about thirty students attended.

 

Then a General meeting was held of all members of the Gujarati speaking community at 79 Waterloo Street and an Advisory Committee of 15 other members was formed to raise funds for the School.

 

In July 1948 a couple was called from India as school teachers, Mr. Manubhai Vimodi and Mrs. Shantaben Vimodi. A school bus was also purchased for student transportation.

 

Subsequently the School committee and Advisory Committee thought of buying a property for the School. In 1950 the school fund was $33,000.00, due to the generosity of Mr. Uttamram Ghelabhai. Subsequently No. 23, 25 & 27 Race Course Lane were purchased at a cost of $29,000.00 and the school started functioning from here.

 

On 12th May, 1952, Mr. & Mrs. Vimodi returned to India after 4½ years of service to the school. Mr. Manshanker Trivedi was appointed as the new teacher. As the school attendance was poor, the school bus service was stopped and subsequently on 1st August 1954 the committee decided to close the school.

 

On 6th September 1954 the school premises at Race Course Lane were rented to Indian Handlooms Emporium.

 

The absence of Gujarati School was very badly felt. So the School Committee restarted the school on 8th December 1958 at 79 Waterloo Street. Mrs. Katijaben Poonawala was engaged as the teacher. Attendance was about 20 pupils and during school vacation the attendance was about 70 pupils.

 

As of 1st November 1960 no fees were taken and a new teacher Mrs. Barolia was appointed. As many Gujarati’s were leaving in the east of Singapore and requested by the Gujarati Mandal, there was a need for a 2nd school. Thus on 1st May 1962 a 2nd school was started at Lorong 40 Geylang. After three year this center was closed due to poor attendance on 1st March 1965.

 

Indian Handlooms Emporium vacated the Race Course Lane properties on 1st September 1965. On 28th September the property was sold. On 27th January 1969, No. 2 Goodman Road premises (9015 sq. ft.) were purchased for the school.

 

The School was transferred from 79 Waterloo Street to No. 2 Goodman Road on 1st October 1969. School times were from 8.30am to 11.30am and 3.00pm to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.

 

The education at the new premises was free and regular attendance was about 30 students with the numbers rising to abt 110 during the school vacation.

 

Mrs. Barolia who had joined our school in 1960, after 18 years of valued and dedicated service, she requested that she be allowed to retire due to age. She left the school on 31st July 1979.

 

Teachers at No. 2 Goodman Road

 

1st Trustees of No. 2 Goodman Road were:

 

1. Mr. R. Jumabhoy

2. Mr. Jamnadas J. Mehta

3. Mr. Devjibhai G. Shah

4. Mr. Bansilal B. Shah

5. Mr. Kantilal Jamnadas

 

The School was registered by the Ministry of Education on 19th January 1960, as per Certificate of Registration No. 132. The address was stated at that time as 79 Waterloo Street, when it moved to No. 2 Goodman Road the Ministry endorsed the new address on their certificate on 18th September 1974 as No. 2 Goodman Road.

 

In 1993 the Ministry of Education announced a change in its policy of Mother Tongue for Primary Schools and allowed the study of Minority Indian Languages in lieu of Chinese, Malay or Tamil. That is Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu could now be studied at as a 2nd Language.

 

Parents were responsible for the education of the child and the child would be tested only at P.S.L.E. Examination. As for examination from Primary 1 to Primary 6 the child would be assessed on his/her other subjects (i.e. minus Mother Tongue).

 

Gujarati Parents were very happy to learn of this and therefore to cater for the increase in attendance and expectation of parents, the Gujarati School had a meeting on 10th October 1993 and decided to setup a Committee to advise the Singapore Gujarati School as to what was required of the School.

 

The committee was called the “Gujarati Language Review Committee” and comprised of members of the School committee, well-wishers and interested parents. The Committee presented a report to the Gujarati School in 5th November 1993. Its recommendations were accepted by the School and the following are some of the major changes that were made to the running of the Gujarati School.

 

1. Starting of Saturday Classes at Haig Girls’ School. There would be Nine Classes catering for students from KG2 to Sec. 4.

2. The Goodman Road facility would continue to be used for Gujarati Education from Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm. At this premises one permanent teacher would teach pupils who require additional help or are not able to attend the Saturday Classes.

3. Attendance at Haig Girls’ School was compulsory to sit for all Examinations

4. A fee of $15.00 per month would be charged

5. Proper Syllabus / Textbooks / Worksheets were prepared for each level.

 

8th January 1994, was the first day of School at Haig Girls’ School and every effort was made to make the exercise as easy as possible. The attendance of the School in 1994 was 112 of whom 57 were taking Gujarati as a 2nd Language.

 

The Gujarati School was able to make a success of its plans because it had an established educational structure which the elders had already prepared and the additional effort and support of interested parents.

 

 

In 1994 the Singapore Gujarati School’s property at No. 2 Goodman Road was held for the school by Trustees. The trustees were:-

 

1. Mr. R. Jumabhoy

2. Mr. Kantilal Jamnadas

3. Mr. Manharlal Govindji Shah

4. Mr. Mulchandbhai A. Parikh

 

The Members of the School Committee in 1994 were:-

 

1. Mr. Manharlal Govindji Shah

2. Mr. Mulchandbhai A. Parikh

3. Mr. Dipak K. Shah

4. Mr. Kirtikar K. Mehta

5. Mr. Sudhir J. Desai

6. Mr. Suresh D. Patel

7. Mr. Pushkar B. Desai

8. Mrs. Mita Shah

9. Mr. Vinayak Dhansukhlal

 

From 1994 to 1998 the School Committee worked to reconstitute the School in such a manner that future members would find it easy to run. It was therefore agreed to reconstitute the Singapore Gujarati School as a Company Limited by Guarantee and Not Having Share Capital. The company was registered on 16th October 1998 and its Company No. 199805072E. Further it applied for and was registered as a Charity under the Charities Act, 1994, Registration No. 1369.

 

We also obtained permission from Ministry of Finance and was able to transfer the property from the name of the trustees to the name of Singapore Gujarati School Limited.

 

The initial Directors of the company were:-

 

1. Mr. Manharlal Govindji Shah

2. Mr. Mulchandbhai A. Parikh

3. Mr. Vinayak s/o Dhansukhlal

 

On 20 March 2000 the following two members also became directors

 

1. Mr. Dipak K. Shah

2. Mr. Pushkar B. Desai

 

As Mr. Manharlal Govindji Shah had requested to step down from the post of Director, his position was taken by

 

1. Mrs. Mita Shah

 

Mrs. Asha K. Vora joined the Singapore Gujarati School Limited as member in 2000. 

 

 

 

• 50th Anniversary Celebration (17th August 1997 – Victoria Theatre) GOH – Mr. Peter Chen, Senior Minister of State for Education

• 10 Years of Formal Gujarati Education (11th July 2004 – DBS Auditorium) GOH – Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister of Education

• Gujarati School Idol (29th May 2005 – Dunman High School) GOH – Mdm. Khatijaben Savliwala

• Racial Harmony (15th July 2006 – Haig Girls’ School Hall) GOH – Mdm. Mandakini R. Mehta

• Official Opening of New Premises at 225 Joo Chiat Road (19th October 2008) GOH - RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts

 

 

• Bird Park

• Visit to Religious Places

• Singapore Flyer

 

 

The Singapore Gujarati School Limited joined the Board so that it could project a joint voice with the other NTIL mother tongues as well as to learn from their experience.

 

On 23rd January 2003 a joint body was registered called the Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages. It represented all the languages in the NTIL program. The institutions that were its members on its inception where:-

 

1. Bangla Language and Literary Society (Singapore) (1 Nominee)

2. Bangladesh Language and Cultural Foundation (1 Nominee)

3. Singapore Gujarati School Limited (2 Nominee)

4. DAV Hindi School (1 Nominee)

5. Hindi Society (Singapore) (1 Nominee)

6. Singapore Sikh Education Foundation (2 Nominee)

7. Singapore Pakistan Association (1 Nominee)

8. Urdu Development Society (Singapore) (1 Nominee)

 

 

The main objectives of the Board were:

 

1. To oversee the standardise the setting of examination papers on Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu languages for primary, secondary  and pre-university level examinations.

2. To ensure that all the examinations for the Non-Tamil Indian Languages (NTIL) are carried out professionally.

3. To oversee and standardise the marking of the NTIL papers.

4. To advise all members organisations on matters pertaining to the teaching, review and development of the language curriculum.

5. To undertake any other activities / programmes to achieve the above and related objectives.

 

The membership subscription per year is $500.00, further each of the eight (8) institutions collected $20.00 examination fee, of which $10.00 was given to the Board to cover the cost of setting, translating, typing and moderation of the SA1 & SA2 papers.

 

 

On 7th March 2007 it was announced by Ministry of Education that: 

 

• It will also be working together with BTTSAL to effect the necessary processes to facilitate the recognition of NTIL grades for students’ level-to-level progression within school, before the students take the national examinations at the milestone years.  Once these processes are in place, MOE will also allow students to use NTIL grades to count towards their eligibility for Edusave awards such as the Good Progress Award and Edusave scholarship.

 

• To support these community groups in keeping their mother tongues and cultures alive, MOE will provide funding support for the instruction of NTILs from 2008.  MOE will provide them with a total grant of about $1.5 million each year to support the learning of the NTILs.

 

 

No. 2 Goodman Road was purchased on 27th January 1969 from proceeds of the sale of the 1st School property at 23, 25 & 27 Race Course Lane. It was primarily purchased as there was need for a School in the eastern part of Singapore. It served it purpose well over the years but there were very strict URA guidelines that did not allow full use of the premises. This especially became true with more pupils studying Gujarati.

 

On 3rd January 2007, after some 37 years the property was sold. The objective of the Directors and Members was to get an alternate premise where the following could be done:-

 

1. Have an administrative office

2. Be able to set-up proper Library with excess to all

3. Be able to conduct 2/3 class with approval from the authorities 

4. Be able to display the School’s name

 

To meet the above needs an alternate property was purchased at 225 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427488. 

 

This area is under the Secondary Conservation Zone and the unit could be used for commercial use. Application was made for change of use of the property to Commercial School and was obtained. Subsequently after the necessary upgrading Ministry of Education approval was also obtained. Certificate No. 2988 dated 7th July 2008 was issued as a replacement for certificate No. 132 of 1960.

 

The official opening of the New Premises were held on Sunday, 19th October 2008 and RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts had consented to officiate the opening of our new premises.

 

The School looks forward to many years in its new premises to cater to the need of the Gujarati speaking Community and provide top Gujarati education for our pupils.