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Raffles Junior College (abbr. '''RJC''', or, commonly, '''RJ''') is a prestigious1 Junior College in Singapore offering a two-year course for students. It is located in Bishan beside the campus of Raffles Institution . It was consistently ranked among Singapore's top few junior colleges, until the ranking of junior colleges was discontinued in 2004. On average, 95% of RJC graduates attend university, many on scholarships.[http://www.rjc.edu.sg/newrjc/ss_uni.htm In the 2005 A Level Examination, Raffles Junior College had 13 perfect scorers (4 A-level Distinctions, 3 S-Paper Distinctions, and 1 A1 in General Paper) - unsurpassed in the school's history {Link without Title} . The current Principal of the school is Winston James Hodge (2001 – present). HISTORY Raffles Junior College was established to provide students with a two-year pre-university course previously provided by Raffles Institution (RI), in keeping with national trends. Since then, it has "excelled in both academic and non-academic fields", developing "fine traditions and excellent spirit". There is a distinct school spirit, termed the ''Rafflesian Spirit'', which bonds Rafflesians near and far, past and present, in common purpose and determination. In 1982, RI’s pre-university section was transferred to a temporary campus at Paterson Road. RJC was then established to offer the GCE A Level curriculum. It was the first junior college to be established with both JC1 and JC2 students, with the JC2 students having just completed their Pre-U Year 1 in RI. RJC then moved to Mt Sinai Road in 1984 which provided better facilities and a larger site to cater to junior college education. It was the college's home for the next 21 years. On 29 December , 2004 , RJC held its moving ceremony from its previous Mount Sinai campus to Bishan Street 21 beside RI, where students took a specially chartered MRT train to Bishan and walked to their new campus. On 1 January 2005, the junior college became an independent institution, only the second JC to be accorded this status after Hwa Chong Junior College (now Hwa Chong Institution ) a year earlier. In the same year, RJC became the first junior college to be awarded the School Excellence Award, the highest award in the MOE Masterplan of Awards. The new Bishan campus was officially opened by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 8 April 2006, in conjunction with the college's 25th Anniversary celebrations. Past principals Mr Rudy Mosbergen 1982-1987 Mr Lee Fong Seng 1988-2000 COLLEGE ANTHEM The College Anthem of RJC is the same as the Institution Anthem of Raffles Institution. It was written by E. W. Jesudason (Principal of RI 1963–1966), and retained by RJC since it was born from the bosom of RI. Auspicium Melioris Ævi When Stamford Raffles held the torch That cast Promethean Flame We faced the challenge of the day To give our school a name The eagle eye and gryphon strength They led us to the fore To reign supreme in ev'ry sphere The sons of Singapore Come heed the call Rafflesians all And let our hearts be stirring We'll do our best whate'er test And keep our colours flying Let comradeship and fervent hope With one voice make us pray Auspicium Melioris Ævi With God to guide the way Coat of arms The school badge is a modified version of the Raffles Coat Of Arms – granted permission for use by his family. This replaces the original Gold portion of the Field with Erminois , and the Purpure of the Gryphon Crest with Gules . The Gryphon on the Crest is a stately creature, majestic and strong, symbolising stability and success for the school. The gryphon's lower lion half symbolises the school's anchors in Singapore. The double-headed Eagle on the shield signifies the looking back onto the Past and onto the Future , symbolizing RJC's tradition of drawing strength and experience from the past in order to excel in the future. This also indicates universality - looking to the East as well as the West . The school motto, "Auspicium Melioris Ævi", is displayed black on gold at the base of the shield. While the school's official translation is "Hope of a Better Age",Refer, for example, to ''One Man's Vision: Raffles Institution in Focus'' (1992): "Hope of a Better Age, the school motto, is the vision perceived by Raffles Institution, a perception every Rafflesian hopes to achieve for the future." strictly speaking, this is a mistranslation. ''Auspicium'' primarily means an . AFFILIATION RJC is affiliated to both Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) (RGS). It shares its school anthem and school crest with RI. RJC's new Bishan campus is adjacent to RI. The two schools run Open Concept campuses. Students of both schools may access both campuses. Most facilities, however, are not shared between the schools, except for certain Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) training grounds. Both schools share a common driveway and main gate. RJC's Block A is linked to the new 7-storey academic block, the S. Rajaratnam Block in RI by a bridge, which provides a seamless link between RI and RJC. The college uniform for RJC boys is largely similar to that for RI boys, with the main differences lying in the pleat at the back of the shirt, upturned sleeves which are sewn down, pleats in the long pants and the material of the uniform. RJC girls wear a white, medium-sleeved blouse with a green pleated skirt. The college badge retains the old RI design, where RI modified its badge slightly in the 1990s. RJC currently offers the ''Raffles Programme'' (RP), an Integrated Programme which takes students all the way from Secondary 1 to JC2, skipping the GCE 'O' Level Examinations . Students spent the first four years in RI or RGS, and the last two years in RJC. FACULTY AND HOUSE SYSTEM In May 2005, RJC introduced the house system which replaced its faculty system. This was due to the large imbalance of people taking different subject combinations in recent years. For example, the Engineering and Arts Faculties combined was smaller than the Medicine Faculty in 2005. Other reasons include the pioneer batch of students in the Raffles Programme entering RJC in 2006, the major change in the Singapore junior college education system from 2006 which discourages students from taking "triple science" ( Biology , Chemistry and Physics ), as well as the fact that Computing and Further Mathematics are no longer offered. These are the faculties from the old system that have ceased to exist: Arts (Red) (A01, A02, A03, A04) (Formerly "Arts and Commerce" until Commerce ceased to be offered from 2000) Commerce (Black) (C0X) (Merged with Arts to become "Arts and Commerce" in the 1990s) Computing and Pure Science (Green) (S04, S05, S06, S07) Engineering (Blue) (S01, S02) Medicine (Yellow) (S03) Note: In 2005, the Medicine Faculty was split into MedFac 1 and MedFac 2 due to the large population. Students from RI and RGS remain in their original houses while students from other schools will be evenly allocated into the five houses. The names of the Houses are merged from RI and RGS as follows: Bayley-Waddle (Yellow) Buckle-Buckley (Green) Hadley-Hullett (Purple/Black) Moor-Tarbet (Red) Morrison-Richardson (Blue) FACILITIES RJC's current campus in Bishan has an area of 86,500 square metres, located within 11 blocks and 7 floors. Students attend Lectures in lecture theatres and Tutorial lessons in the tutorial rooms. After academic lessons, tutorial rooms are sometimes used by students for self-study or for CCA purposes. All tutorial rooms have been fitted with air-conditioning since 2007 to provide a more conducive environment for learning. It is noted that the air-conditioning is controlled by a centrally-planned system. Certain kinks have been identified in the course of operation of the centrally-planned system: it is not an uncommon occurrence that classrooms would not have their air-conditioning turned on during lesson time due to systematic malfunctions. Other facilities include a 850-seater lecture theatre (LT1), a Performing Arts Centre and an Indoor Sports Hall. "Chat Rooms" are provided for individual teacher-pupil conferencing, although they are often locked and inaccessible for use. The three-storey Shaw Foundation Library is also frequented by students, especially during the common test and examination periods. There is also a 7-Eleven convenience store located adjacent to the canteen. There are four lifts which serve all floors in the main blocks. A proposal for a new Student Lounge is currently pending, and if approved, will provide a place for students to relax. CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES RJC boast over seventy CCAs which are divided into three categories: sports groups, musical groups, clubs and societies. Unlike in the affiliated secondary schools, there is no distinction made between core and merit CCAs and students are free to choose their combination of CCAs. Technically, there is no limit to the number of CCAs one can join, but it is recommended that a student should take no more than two CCAs in order to be able to juggle his or her studies with CCAs. STUDENTS' COUNCIL All members of the Students' Council are selected through an annual college-wide election. Throughout its one-year term, the council organises projects and functions for the college, such as orientation, graduation night and open house. it is headed by the President and Vice-President(s). The council also rallies student support for important competitions that the college participates in. The Students' Council is considered an official CCA, though it somehow does not meet the definition of a CCA. The council is subdivided into various departments:
The Presidents, Heads of Departments, House Captains as well as the secretary and treasurer form the council executive committee. Every council batch goes through a council camp, which serves as the initiating event for the incoming council, and a closure to the term of the outgoing council. This camp is followed by the Council Investiture, where the new batch of councillors is now officially given the task to manage the body and school activities. RECENT NEWS See Also: Wee Shu Min elitism scandal RJC was recently propelled into the media limelight when one of its students, , 29 October 2006 and her name topping Technorati's search terms for a week, she has since appeared to have apologised Wei Kiat's blog: Wee Shu Min's apology , 19 Oct 2006. Accessed 13 Nov 2006. on another blog and shut down her own. Similarly, a second blogger from RJC, Moca, has raised eyebrows in a less publicised incident where he posted in late October 2006 an entry similar to that of Wee Shu Min , drawing online criticism about the growing trend of elitism in Singaporean students. Moca's Blog Entries, '' "Another Wee Shu-min clone bites the dust." '', Ng, Aaron, Accessed: 15 June 2007 On another note, on 24 June 2007 , a Year 1, seventeen-year-old student Thaddeus Cheong collapsed and died after completing a triathlon in a South-east Asia Games selection trial.''"Teen triathlete collapses and dies after race"'', Jeanette Wang; Lee Hui Chieh, The Straits Times , 25 June 2007 NOTABLE ALUMNI
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