River Valley High School (Singapore)

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River Valley High School 立化中学 Sekolah Tinggi River Valley
Address
6 Boon Lay Avenue
Boon Lay 649961
Singapore
Information
Type	Government-aided Autonomous Special Assistance Plan (SAP) Integrated Programme (IP)
Established	1956
Website	www.rvhs.moe.edu.sg

River Valley High School (RVHS) is a co-educational government autonomous secondary school in Boon Lay, Singapore. Founded in 1956 and originally located in River Valley, it is one of the Special Assistance Plan schools designated by the Ministry of Education in recognition of its heritage and excellence in education.^[1][2] Since 2006, the school has been running a six-year Integrated Programme that allows students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations and proceed to sit for the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examinations at the end of Year 6.

Controversy and incident[edit]

Principal corruption case[edit]

Koh Yong Chiah was the principal of Jurong Junior College (JJC) from 2003 until 2009, he later became the principal of River Valley High School. He was involved in extramarital affairs with Ivy Loke Wai Lin after knowing each other in 2000. Between May and November 2005, Koh abused his power as the final approving authority for contracts at JJC and awarded six contracts worth $162,491 Singapore Dollars to a firm which belongs to Loke, the Education Architects 21 (EA 21). On 24 Nov 2005, koh gave false information to an officer from the Ministry of Education, asserting that he was not having an affair with school service provider Ivy Loke Wai Lin. Between 2005 and 2012, Koh approved $3.4 million Singapore Dollars worth of contracts to EA 21 and EI, another firms likewise belongs to Loke. After Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) received a tip-off that Koh was suspected of being involved in corrupt dealings with Loke, koh was investigated by CPIB in 2012, and he was redeployed to the Ministry of Education (MOE) to assist in curriculum development.^[3][4]

Koh Yong Chiah was charged in Court on 17 July 2014 with one count of knowingly giving false information to public servants, and one count of giving false information to an investigator of the CPIB.^[5]

River Valley High School murder[edit]

For more information, see: River Valley High School murder.

A Secondary 1 student was murdered in the school's toilet by a fellow Secondary 4 schoolmate in July 2021, the incident also made domestic and international headlines.^[6][7]

Allege of elitism[edit]

In July 2021, an alumni of the River Valley High School reveals online about the school for allegedly having elitist mentality and lack of concern for the students’ mental health, and the culture of River Valley and the general Singaporean Education system has led to the July 2021 attack in school by the Secondary 4 student. The alumni revealed that his past experience in River Valley High school had left him traumatised for years, and he had attempted to suicide with a knife in the school's toilet.^[8]

Footnotes[edit]