Hailing from any of the top 5 junior colleges like Raffles, Hwa Chong or National mark you as an elite for life. But is it worth the torture?
Elite JC students have an exceptionally rigorous curriculum. Besides maths and science being stressed upon, they are encouraged to take up three co-curricular activities.
High Standards
The standards set by elite Junior College teachers are high, and drive the students to aim higher. Many students also remember certain teachers, who they talk about having inspired them to “reach higher” and started a “passionate fire” in them about the subjects they were studying.
Gabriel Seah says old RJC has a culture of doing more than what is necessary, like taking up S-paper subjects (Now known as H3 subjects) and going for 4 A level subjects instead of the mandatory three.
Online Quotes from the Ivy League Machine
Raffles is called the “Ivy League Machine” by the Wall Street Journal and students from Raffles usually end up as bankers, lawyers or doctors, and many shining examples of success in society can be drawn from their high-flying alumni, including our old Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kwan Yew.
But all this at what cost? The elitism in the school is easy to see, with the cohort having been filtered four times in nationwide exams. We look at what Rafflesians are saying in an online forum.
Seow Wan Yi, a pioneer batch from the Raffles Programme says, “You theoretically know around 40% of your cohort since they came from RGS or RI.”
She further apologises on behalf of the Rafflesians who come from the feeder single-gender schools.
“I’m sure there are many who balk at how RJC is filled with RI and RGS students who clique together, etc. I’m sorry if you had a bad experience, I really am,” she says.
JC Was a Shallow Place
Xu Bei Xi, talks about RJC being a benign prison, and about withdrawing if you’re not “one of the gang”. There was no in-built friend base waiting for Bei Xi as a safety net. JC was a pretty shallow place, as far as Bei Xi could remember.
Bei Xi observes RJC is fairly friendly to those who fit the mould – extroverts, leaders, talents, the athletic, the brilliant, and the beautiful. And merely one of those qualities is not enough.
The Social Cost
Adam Adhiyatma, another ex-RJ-cian, says that the largely homogeneous student body is a handicap in society. He cites the problem of not speaking fluent Malay or Hokkien in the armed forces and talking to girls outside of his circle.
“Head as far out as the clubs in Clarke Quay and you might realise that the average girl has no interest in Heart of Darkness or Othello, and you are incapable of having a conversation with them,” he explains.
“JC Killed my Interest for Everything Else”
Wan Yi further has this to say, “JC killed my interest for everything else. I still managed to get a decent enough grade to go to a local uni and study my subject of choice, but one of my close friends didn’t make it altogether.”
“She stopped coming to school completely by the second half of the second year – afraid of school, afraid of the teachers; sick and tired of everything…”
She also cites the urban legend that RJC has the highest suicide rate and the ugly green metal grating on the third floor was to prevent jumpers. She shares of an actual suicide from the class next door. The student walked out during a GP essay exam and jumped from a block of flats in Woodlands.
Wan Yi sums up her RJC experience as a very depressing one: The teachers did not provide support – there was no one to turn to for help. Her close friends were struggling almost as badly as she was, and the bright ones in her class happened to be the selfish ones.
So, is it all worth it?
Being from an elite Junior College means adapting to harsher conditions than the average student, but this is not a problem if one is driven or smart enough. Perhaps it is a matter of perception and conditioning. After all, studying eight hours a day is not torture if you’re used to you and your peers have been doing it from young.
“Auspicium melioris aevi [omen of a better age],” the ex-RJCians chorus their school motto.
By Justin Lim
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