The Rugged Society
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...