While Singapore is a relatively young country, our island does have quite a vast bit of history attached to it.
Many of us know of these schools, but the history that accompanies these institutions is less well-known.
We share the history behind 10 of Singapore’s oldest schools.
1. St Margaret’s School
Let’s get started off with a fun fact — St Margaret’s School (SMS) is the oldest girls’ school in Southeast Asia.
As of 2018, SMS is 176 years old, which takes us back to the 1800s.
In 1842, a British missionary by the name of Mrs Maria Dyer was en route to China when she stopped over in Singapore. Mrs Dyer was horrified to witness young girls being trafficked as servants for rich families.
Rather than turn her back on the atrocities the girls were experiencing, Mrs Dyer set out to house and educate these young girls.
Soon after, the school gained a reputation for producing students who were #wifeymaterial, and Chinese men from surrounding regions would turn to the school to find new brides.
Fast forward a few years to 1949, Chinese Girls’ School was renamed St Margaret’s School, after Queen Margaret of Scotland.