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Queenstown Secondary School (former Queenstown Secondary Technical School) is Singapore’s first technical school. The all-boys School was opened in 1956 to answer the “desperate need” for skilled workers as Singapore diversified its entrepot economy in the mid-1950s.
The original technical school consisted of three main blocks. The first block was a two-storey building with 7 classrooms, 2 laboratories, a library and an administrative office. The second block contained the Assembly Hall, the Recreation Hall and a tuck shop. The third block was used as workshops for Woodwork and Metalwork.
Tan Wee Tin (b.1940) is one of the 92 students from the pioneer batch who studied at Queenstown Secondary Technical School. He recalled:
“When the School started in January 1957, there was a library but there were neither books nor periodicals. One of the teachers, Mr A.W. Basapa, brought magazines, periodicals and daily papers and they were properly indexed and ready for issue in the second term”.
In 1965, a Pre-University class was started to equip students for entry into Singapore Polytechnic. In 1971, girls were admitted to the school. In 1993, the school was renamed as Queenstown Secondary School when both academic and technical education was offered.
