SINGAPORE, April 28 — Following the announcement that eight junior colleges will be merged, there has been an outpouring of concern from impassioned alumni intent on making sure that their schools’ heritage will not be erased.

The ideas to preserve memories of the schools’ identity and culture range from having a digital heritage archive, commemorative events, and using social media to source for ideas on how to go about doing this.

Last week, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that junior colleges (JCs) would be consolidated in 2019 for the first time as part of the latest merger exercise, due to falling birth rates and shrinking cohort sizes.

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Serangoon JC, Jurong JC, Tampines JC and Innova JC will be subsumed by Anderson JC, Pioneer JC, Meridian JC and Yishun JC, respectively.

Among those stridently voicing their views are the former students of Innova JC, who are actively working with the school to find ways to recapture the history and tradition of their alma mater.

Speaking to TODAY, Marcus Tan, secretary of Innova JC Alumni, said that several ideas cropped up during a regular meeting with the school advisory committee on Tuesday.

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For instance, they could tap the school’s niche in multi-media and build a digital heritage archive to house videos produced by the college, as well as get former students to send voice recordings with recollections of their time spent there, creating an “oral history”.

They are also encouraging people to contribute ideas on what items and memorabilia to keep at the heritage space in the merged schools’ building.

“We hope that alumni and other stakeholders of the school community can come forward and give us their suggestions and contributions,” Tan said, adding that they may hold a commemorative event next year.

The alumni of both Yishun JC and Innova JC could look at co-hosting events together as well, he added.

At an upcoming parent engagement meeting this Saturday, school leaders at Innova JC will also seek parents’ feedback on the merger.

Likewise, Jurong JC alumni members said that they have been involved in discussions almost daily, and the number of alumni members on its Facebook page has “grown by hundreds” in the last few days.

Loo Cheng Chuan, chairman of the college advisory committee, said that the alumni — fearing the loss of the school’s heritage — is pushing to preserve the college’s name, and will be launching a social media campaign by the end of this week to call for some 5,000 ex-students to pledge their support.

Loo stressed that they understand the reasons for the merger, but they do not want to lose the college’s name. “(Once) you lose that, you lose the connection to 36 years of students, lose the (heritage) and connection to the school … The name is paramount.”

The alumni is also planning to organise a “homecoming event” later this year for past students to meet past principals, teachers and friends.

Serangoon JC Alumni Association said on its Facebook page that it would be hosting a dialogue on May 13 with past students to address questions and collate feedback to be shared with MOE.

It also started an initiative called SR Remember, to work with the college to preserve its heritage and memories, right up to the 30th anniversary of its opening in 2018.

In a joint media statement from Yishun JC and Innova JC, both colleges said that even as students were briefed about the rationale behind the merger and accepted the reasons, they have “understandably been emotionally affected”.

The schools have written to parents and encouraged them to give feedback and concerns through parent-teacher dialogues.

To meaningfully preserve the heritage of both colleges, they are “committed to taking the time to hear about the experiences that alumni and staff treasure, and consider the best ways to showcase them”.

Uniforms, badges, flags as well as photographs and videos of memorable events will be included in the heritage space set aside at the merged school, although the details are being worked out.

Pioneer JC and Jurong JC said in a joint statement that a heritage wall at the merged site in Pioneer JC, displaying both college’s key artefacts and memorabilia, would be completed by the end of this year.  — TODAY