MM Lee Kuan Yew at the Raffles Institution Gryphon Award Gala Dinner 2011

Professor Cham Tao Soon, Chairman of the Board
Mrs Lim Lai Cheng, Principal of the School
All Rafflesians
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for honouring me with the inaugural Gryphon Award.

I was a student in the old RI at Stamford Road from 1936 to 1940. I visited RI in new premises in September last year. Much has changed from my time in RI.

RI became the premier school because it admitted the top students from all government primary schools and the best teachers wanted to teach in RI. RI went independent in 1990, and has offered the six-year Raffles Programme with Raffles Girls’ School since 2004. It is now a bigger school with the re-integration of RI and Raffles Junior College in 2009.

The students in the new RI I met were articulate, intelligent and perceptive – among our best and brightest. One student, Soh Ser Yee, shared how she works with SINDA to provide enrichment opportunities for students from humble families. Another student, Adil Hakeem, conducts debate clinics for primary school students to help them speak more confidently and fluently. These students embody the school’s ethos: a strong sense of personal commitment, intellectual endeavour and social responsibility.

Graduating from a top school like RI does not mean that one will necessarily succeed in life. Academic ability must be matched by people skills, the capacity to adapt and change with changing circumstances, and to keep on learning. Rafflesians must understand their own limitations, in order to continue to improve themselves. They need to collaborate with people from different backgrounds to work together and to get tasks done.

The Place of RI in Singapore

188 years ago, Sir Stamford Raffles established RI to provide a sound education for the future leaders of the land. The school’s mission has not changed. RI has produced generations of leaders at all levels: in politics and government, the professions, academia, business, sports and the arts. Rafflesians must give back to the community, do their best for their own personal advancement and for the wider public good.

RI must always remain a school that admits students on the basis of merit, and not on their parents’ status or wealth. They must be able, whatever their race or social backgrounds. RI also attracts bright students from other countries. This makes RI the leading school in Singapore. The ideals of Singaporeans and Rafflesians are meritocracy and multiculturalism, regardless of their race, religion or mother tongue.

I am a beneficiary of that meritocratic system. Some of my fellow students came in big cars, like descendants of the Eu Tong Sen family; some in unpressed clothes from Chinatown on buses and bicycles. But our goal was to achieve excellence. From RI, I went on to Raffles College and, subsequently after the war, to Cambridge. But my formative years were from 1936 to 1940 at RI.

Rafflesians Heed the Call

Can RI continue to produce the future leaders of Singapore through the quality, vision and impact of its education? Nearly twenty years ago, I spoke at the RI Fund-Raising Dinner. I described the difficulty for RI to raise funds from its alumni after it became independent. RI started as a government-aided school and did not co-opt the parents and alumni for financial support. It is unlike schools which had links to religious and community groups.

It is important for old boys and girls to support their alma mater and contribute money, time and work. To remain the top school, RI needs to attract and retain dedicated teachers, have the latest facilities in learning, sports, drama and the arts. It must have programmes that stretch its students, and also expose them to the wider world.

The American high schools and universities are good at co-opting their alumni and their families to raise funds. They are systematic in their approach to alumni and parents for support. There is also a strong sense of identity and community amongst the alumni and parents, who feel proud to be associated with their alma mater and want it to continue to succeed. Our schools and tertiary institutions should learn this from their American counterparts.

I am glad to learn that RI started the “1823 Fund” last year. Named after the year RI was founded, the 1823 Fund is to help the school get support from alumni, parents and friends. Rafflesians and their families should contribute generously to the Fund, to preserve RI’s traditions. Such support will make for future generations of Rafflesians to excel, thrive and discover – to be ‘the hope of a better age’.

RI is very different from some other schools in Singapore, which give preferential treatment in admitting children of alumni or students from wealthy families who could afford their high school fees. These schools create a different kind of social network later on in life; their alumni support one another because they come from the upper strata of our society. We must preserve the meritocratic-based government schools; so that they keep up the standards in our schools and universities, and enable the brightest and the best to rise to the top. They are the drivers of Singapore’s advancement.

I am a fortunate product of the RI system. I commend all those who have come after me to uphold the fine traditions of meritocracy not only in their school lives, but in whatever fields of endeavour they subsequently find themselves pursuing.

Thank you.