Gan Eng Seng School

In 1885, a school was opened in some shophouses in Telok Ayer Street by Mr Gan Eng Seng to offer free education to the children of poor parents in the vicinity. It was called the Anglo-Chinese Free School, and in no way connected with the other Anglo-Chinese School founded a year later by the late Bishop W.F. Oldham. No school perhaps has had a more distinguished array of personalities connected with it than Gan Eng Seng School. We learn that before it became a government school, it had on its Board of Trustees such names as Tan Keong Saik, Ho Yang Peng, Wee Theam Tew, Lee Cheng Yan, Chan Sze Jin, Wee Swee Teow, Song Ong Siang, and Dr. Lim Boon Keng. In 1888, Gan Eng Seng School became an Aided School. It still owed much to the generosity of Mr Gan Eng Seng. When in 1889, the Government gave the school a site in Telok Ayer Street for a new building, it was Mr Gan Eng Seng who put up the building itself. On 4th April, 1893 the new building was opened by the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith. English as well as Chinese were taught at Gan Eng Seng School until the founder’s death, when it became a purely English School. Then owing to financial difficulties, it no longer functioned as a free school, and for some time fees were charged. In 1986, the new Gan Eng Seng School was opened on a new site beside Keppel Railway Station and officially inaugurated on 12th July 1989The school’s founding site at Telok Ayer Street was designated as a national historical site by the National Heritage Board in 1997. The school is currently located at Henderson Road in Bukit Merah.