SINGAPORE SCHOOL FOR THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED
HISTORY
| Lighthouse School (formerly known as The Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped) was set up by the then Singapore Association for the Blind in 1956 and was therefore funded and managed by the Association until 1989 when the School went under the purview of the Ministry of Education. The following year saw the School go independent of the Association, which was founded on 6th November 1951 by a Scottish Colonel G.A.P. Sutherland, who was also its first President. Although the School has been independent of the Association from 1st April 1990, the School and the Association have been working closely as members of one big family where we complement each other’s services.
From the beginning, the School, which was part of the Association, was very much assisted by the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, which was then known as the Empire Society for the Blind. We started off as a residential school where visually handicapped children could stay in through the whole school term. The School then had resident Principal and teaching staff in addition to housemothers to stay in and look after the students. We also had a Matron to manage the housemothers and other domestic staff like cooks and school servants. The Matron should be a qualified staff nurse so that there was someone around to dispense first aid or a prescription should there be any minor accident. The School even had 2 resident drivers who could be easily available to ferry children with serious medical problems to the nearby Toa Payoh Hospital whenever needed.
From this humble origin, the special education that had been provided to the visually handicapped students had been constantly upgraded to keep up with the latest technology. As the main emphasis of Lighthouse School is on improving the educational attainment of the visually handicapped children, it has endeavoured to do everything possible toward achieving this goal. As a result, Lighthouse School is going all out these two years to see how special computer-aided teaching and learning could be introduced in the School. We are indeed very grateful to the Ministry of Education for having fully wired up the School and for the kind provision of a new computer laboratory equipped with 12 sets of brand new Pentium III in early 2000. |
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