Pei Hwa Secondary School

Pei Hwa Public School

Pei Hwa Public School along Yio Chu Kang Road was founded in 1934 as Hwa Keow School by Mr Ang Gong Pin, who felt a need for a school in proximity to their villages because most schools were located in the cities and not everyone had the means to send their children to and from the city. Pei Hwa Public School started as a small village school with 17 classrooms and a dormitory for the principal and teachers.

In 1935, the elders in the village led by Mr. Ong Ker Kee, Mr. Ang Kong Peng, Mr. Ang Lin Lee, Mr. Toh Yong Eik, Mr. Tan Teng Kar, together with the support by the shop owners of Chop Swee Huat Heng, Chop Sing Swee Huat and Chop Eik Huat, started to raise funds for the construction of a school campus. Few months later, two classrooms, an office and two dormitories were erected at the opposite of the school premises. The school was registered in 1936 as Pei Hwa Public School.

The school was forced to close due to the Japanese occupation, and re-opened on 8 October 1945 with about two hundred pupils. It took two years to repair the damages caused during the occupation. With a increase in student population over the late 1940s and early 1950s, facilities were insufficient to meet the demands of the education system. The School Management Committee formed a School Construction Sub-committee led by Mr. Toh Kim Soo, Mr. Ang Keong Lan (vice chairman) and Mr. Wang Jin Yuan. The School Management Committee looked for an alternative site to build new school buildings and began a donation drive and fund raising. A collective sum of more than seventy thousand was raised from enterprises and general public. A five acres site along Yio Chu Kang Rd was sought after long negotiation with the owner, Hock Ann Company.

Building construction began in June 1954 and completed in December, costing $130,000. It comprised a two-storey building with twelve classrooms, an office, a library, a store room, a visitor’s lounge, a bookshop and a canteen.

Transformation as a Government-aided School

Pei Hua Public became a government-aided school in 1955 and the second phrase of the school construction, which included an assembly hall, was completed in 1961. The school continued to be upgraded throughout the 1970s, including library, language laboratories, science and music rooms, and stayed as a well- equipped Chinese school in Yio Chu Kang area. In 1978, it started to register pupils for English stream and in the following year, pre-primary education was introduced. The school reached its peak by having 34 classes and was one of 28 primary schools receiving prioritised attention from the Ministry.

As a traditional Chinese school, the students took Chinese as their main language together with Mathematics, Moral Education, Physical Education and Arts and Crafts. Extra-Curriculum Activities (ECAs) were also rolled out along with Ministry of Education guidelines since 1979.

In the late 1980s, the enrollment to the school began to dwindle as many of the surrounding villages were gradually relocated under the redevelopment scheme to new HDB housing estates. Efforts were made to alleviate the situation. The library was re-renovated, more books in English were added to boost the pupils’ standard in English. Many projects in English Language were implemented. Outdoor activities and games were encouraged and the school also participated in competitions. At the end of 1990, the decision was made to close Pei Hwa Public School. Pupils and teachers thereafter were transferred to other schools by the Ministry of Education.

Re-establishment as Pei Hwa Secondary School

In 2004, the idea of resurrecting Pei Hwa arose from a group of former students who had since started the Pei Hwa Foundation, a philanthropic organization founded on the principles of contribution to the community for the betterment of those living there. The re-established school is located at 21 Fernvale Link, a 15-minute drive from the original site of the Pei Hwa Public School. The school was officially opened on 28 July 2007 by then Minister for Education Mr Tharman Shammugaratnam, along with members of the Pei Hwa Foundation and the School Advisory Committee.