History
Tao Nan School was set up by three local Chinese philanthropists of the Singapore Hokkien Association (Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan) in 1906 and founded the ideal of preserving Chinese culture and heritage. It had premises first at Siam House on North Bridge Road. When it relocated to Armenian Street in 1912, the school switched its medium of education from Hokkien to Mandarin, an unprecedented event in Singapore at that time.
Tan Kah Kee, a wealthy Chinese leader, was one of the 110 founding members of the school. He served for 12 years as the school's president. He received a good amount of his funding from Oei Tiong Ham, a sugar tycoon, whose donation of $10,000 paid for the plot of land on which Tao Nan School was built. Tan Kah Kee himself contributed much money to the school as well as other Chinese schools.
Tao Nan School has produced many remarkable Chinese leaders, among them Lee Kong Chian, a prominent businessman, philanthropist and patron of education.
During the Japanese Occupation (1942–1945), the school was closed. It reopened in October 1945 after the end of World War II. Its student population increased rapidly and by the following year, two separate sessions of classes were necessary. In the mid-1970s, however, the school's population declined as families moved out of the city to new suburban housing estates.
In 1976, the Singapore Hokkien Association decided to move the school to its present home in the suburb of Marine Parade. In 1982, Tao Nan School started operations at its new campus in Marine Parade, where it still resides today.
The Old Tao Nan School building was gazetted as a national monument on 27 February 1998.
Read more about this topic: Old Tao Nan School
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