The Naughty Boys

The Last Assembly at RI Bras Basah Road We, old Rafflesians, always cherish the school songs we sang at the Thursday assemblies as well as the weekly music lessons we received during the lower secondary classes. Sec 3B Science had our music lessons every Wednesday before recess at the School Hall together with other Sec 3 classes. The lessons were taught by Mr George Sobreilo the asst Principal and sometimes by Mr David Lim, the Inspector of Schools for Music sent by the Ministry of Education. The School published a yellow coloured notebook which had a list of more than 150 songs and we all had to buy this RI songbook like a textbook. We sang those songs in turn during assembly and at every event. We had to sit on the floor of the school hall which was quite disconcerting because we wore white shorts and invariably these shorts would be dirty with dust. Many of us were from poor families and cannot afford to have uniforms laundered every day, so we came to school with d...

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, founder Prime Minister of Singapore  In his National Day Speech, in 1966, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew introduced ‘The Rugged Society’. This meant having the physical and mental stamina and discipline imbued into all Singaporeans to engender a commitment to Singapore, its dreams, aspirations and to ensure its success as a new country. According to an article in Today’s newspaper published  on the 23 August 2015, Lee Kuan Yew had urged time and again that Singapore had to become a “rugged society”, noted Mr Lee, “Our people must still be robust and tough, able to take hard knocks, always striving to be better,” Raffles Institution took these injunctions in its stride always setting the example for Singapore schools. Our school had always provided an all rounded education with sports and extracurricular activities other than just the excellent academic pursuits. With the introduction of the rugged...