ETV ?

The younger generation probably may not know what is ETV. Also not many may bother about it. But ETV means a lot to me at that time.

Credit : The Straits Times

This was the TV programmes list in The Straits Times 27 years ago (1981). Nothing special except the channels were known as SBC 5 (Channel 5), SBC 8 (Channel 8), Malaysia 3 (Malaysia Channel 3) and Malaysia 10 (Malaysia Channel 10 where occassionally we had some Cantonese shows).

From my previous post here, SBC was formed probably from 1980 to 1994. From the above newspaper cut-out, you can see at the bottom – CDIS (Curriculum Development Instittute of Singapore) section. This was the Educational TV Programmes for students, probably mainly Primary School students. In fact the CDIS was formed about the same year as SBC in 1980, by MOE.

Credit : The Straits Times

What about before that when I was in Primary School in the 70s? I remember it was known as ETV (probably Educational TV programmes). Of course it was the RTS times in the 70s. The teacher would brought the whole class to the TV Room to watch the 10 to 15 minutes of ETV (in black and white at that time), mainly covering subjects like English, Maths and Science. Not many of us had TVs at home, so watching such educational programmes on TV in school really thrilled us. Sometimes the class was noisy and we arrived late and only managed to watch to the last 5 minutes of the show.

You may wish to read more about ETV from this article.

In fact, ETV was started sometime in 1967. At that time Mr. Ong Pang Boon was the Minister For Education. Primary School students watching ETV in the TV room (1971) ;

Credit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS