Beatty Integrated School was my Primary School and back then, it wasn’t called Beatty Primary School. To understand this, probably we need to go into a bit of history on the past educational system.
Beatty Integrated School was officially opened by Mr. Chan Chee Seng (a popular figure in Jalan Besar area at that period), the then Parliamentary Secretary to Ministry Of Home Affairs in 1963. During the year 1959 to 1968, all those schools built were integrated schools. The purpose is to achieve social cohesion via integrating 2 or more language streams in one school.
That was because before World War II, and under the British rule, they only focused on English and Malay schools. Chinese and Tamil schools were run privately. It was during the Japanese Occupation that the education system in Singapore was then changed.
The Japanese introduced daily flag raising ceremony followed by physical exercise. They also forced to have a common language Nippon-go. After the Japanese left, our education system started to change – a free universal primary education to meet the country’s need. So the meaning of Integrated means Chinese, Malay and Tamil was the mother tongue language for the English stream schools. Most of the Chinese schools then were privately run. For more detail, please read the following;
Educational Innovation In Singapore by Ruth H.K. Wong.
The photo below shows the Opening Ceremony by Mr. Chan Chee Seng;
Photo credit : National Archives of Singapore
Note : Those 2 buildings behind were Block 6 (2 storey flat) and Block 7 (4 storey flat where my godmother’s family stayed).
The school ground now has been used by SINDA and some childcare center. Sad to say that the Beatty Integrated School was a school of the past; but the Secondary School is still around.
Times of My Life 
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