St Joseph's Institution International
St. Joseph's Institution International (SJI International) is a Catholic international school owned by the De La Salle Brothers in Singapore.
SJI International is the third international school in Singapore which can accept Singaporean students without prior permission from the Ministry of Education (MOE), as in the case for ACS (International) and Hwa Chong International. Such international schools enjoy much more autonomy than government schools, in areas of curriculum, recruiting students and staff, and school fees. The school is also the only school in the SJI family to accept girls. The school still has to follow several policies of the MOE such as the bilingual policy and students having to sing the Singapore national anthem daily.
Students at SJI International take the IGCSE examinations in Year 10, and the International Baccalaureate diploma in Year 12. (ACS [International] also offers this curriculum.) However, The Primary school section is unable to accept Singaporean students and is targeting foreign students. SJII has submitted an application to the MOE to open a primary school. The school's secondary and junior college section can comprise up to half the school's enrollment in the upper school. However, the majority of students in the school are Singaporeans currently.
History
Plans for an international school by SJI was conceived in April 2006, when the Economic Development Board invited SJI to start an international school. The school was proposed as its feeder school was unable to take in more foreign students due to limited places. When proposals were finalised, the school planned to open in January if the proposal back then was successful. It was set up for those who wanted a non-Singaporean curriculum and those who are not comfortable in the Singaporean education system. The SJI board felt that starting up an international school will let them sink their roots into Singapore and eventually continue to work in Singapore. The school has collaborated with SJI Junior to start the Josephian programme. A Leadership Council was set up to provide support, advice and guidance for The New international school. It consists of some of SJI's most prominent old boys, including former deputy prime minister Tony Tan, Minister for National Development, Mah Bow Tan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Yeo and Minister for Defence, Teo Chee Hean as patrons. The chairman and leading founder is Philip Yeo who is the chairman of the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board, advisor on science and technology as well as economic development the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Prime Minister's Office respectively. The leadership council has pledged S$700,000 to the building of the school and offering 50 scholarships to help graduating SJI Independent students who are planning to take the International Baccalaureate diploma.
SJI International was the only international school in the second round of proposals to be approved out of the nine proposals. The approval was given by the MOE on September 6 2006, and the approval was based on the strength of the management team, coherence of the curriculum offerings and the quality of education that the school could provide to their students. SJI International and the Economic Development Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding on September 27 2006 at the Singapore Art Museum, the former campus of SJI Independent. Sponsors pledged more than S$3 million in additional funding of scholarships and is additional to the S$1 million pledged earlier by the Leadership Council. The sponsors come from Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is sponsoring five students from the region to study at the school under its Young Researchers Programme. A S$5 million was donated in November 2006 by the late tycoon Khoo Teck Puat estate. The late tycoon was an old boy of St Joseph's Institution. After the donation from the estate, the fund set aside for scholarships have a total amount of S$9 million.
Campus and facilities
The school is housed on an eight hectare site along Thomson Road next to the SLF Building and MCYS Building which was formerly occupied by CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh) and Thomson Secondary and Primary Schools. The school is housed in the holding campus on-site which will be used for their future primary school when it commences operations in 2008. The secondary and International Baccalaureate school will be housed in a new block when its completed in October 2007.
See also
- St Joseph's Institution, Singapore
- St Joseph's Institution Junior
- Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools