History
Raffles Institution was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles on 5 June 1823. He had secured a grant from the British East India Company, drafted the curriculum and set up the structure for the board of trustees in order to provide education for the sons of the Company's employees and the children of local leaders in the new British colony of Singapore. The original campus of Raffles Institution was on Bras Basah Road, where Raffles City Shopping Centre now stands. The Bras Basah campus's library building is featured on the $2 paper and polymer bill in the Singapore legal tender.
The school moved in March 1972 to Grange Road. In 1982 RI had its pre-university section transferred to form Raffles Junior College (RJC). In 1984, it became one of two schools selected by the MOE to pilot the Gifted Education Programme to cater to intellectually gifted students. In 1990, the school became independent and moved to its present campus at Bishan.
In 2004, the new Raffles Programme was offered to Secondary 1 to 3 students. It allows students to enter RJC without having to sit for GCE O-Levels, giving them more time to engage in enrichment activities. The curriculum serves to "seek to nurture the best and brightest into men and women of scholarship who will be leaders of distinction, committed to excellence and service in the interest of the community and nation." In 2009, RI and RJC were re-integrated as a single school to facilitate the running of the Raffles Programme.
RI's alumni body, the Old Rafflesians Association (ORA), includes former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, and three former presidents of Singapore: Yusof bin Ishak, Benjamin Henry Sheares, and Wee Kim Wee.
Lee Kuan Yew wrote about his time at RI in the 1930s in The Singapore Story and this section of the book is available on line.
The history of Raffles Institution (1823–2003) is documented in the book The Eagle Breeds a Gryphon, by a former headmaster, Eugene Wijeysingha. The latest edition includes events up to 2003.
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