YOUNG girls cowered at the sight of her, pranksters knew better than to set off stink bombs in her class and a former Defence Minister once declared she had the better army.In a black and white photo, Miss Rosalind Heng looks formidable in army uniform, beret and boots.
As a teacher in charge of the National Cadet Corps at the Singapore Chinese Girls School (SCGS), she came in for praise when the late Defence Minister Lim Kim San inspected a drill put up by her girls in 1969.
He told then principal S.K. Tan: ‘You got a better army than I!’
Miss Heng had joined the school that year after graduating from the then University of Singapore. She became principal in 1979 when she was 34, stayed 38 years, devoting her entire career to the school.
‘She was very hardworking but rather loud,’ a retired SCGS teacher, Mrs C.O. Lee, 64, recalled with a laugh.
‘When she scolds, the whole school knows!’
The towering headmistress with a weakness for floral-print dresses became synonymous with SCGS, which was founded in 1899 as a school for seven Straits Chinese girls. It has about 2,200 students now.
Today, she is stepping down and giving way to the new SCGS principal, Madam Sim Ay Nar, formerly head of Xinmin Secondary.
Miss Heng, 61, is among the last of Singapore’s legendary principals who stayed at their posts and became identified with their schools.
To Ms Sie Siok Hui, 45, a former SCGS teacher, Miss Heng’s retirement marks the end of an era.
She reflected: ‘When I was a trainee teacher 20 years ago, we heard of principals by word of mouth. ‘Fearsome’, ‘awe-inspiring’, ’slave-drivers’, ‘uncompromising in standards’, ‘undying dedication’ were usually associated with principals of prominence.’
But many of that generation of principals have retired and the Education Ministry rotates principals so that they bring new ideas to schools and learn from their new environments.
Today, 50 principals, including 17 being made heads for the first time, will receive their new appointments.
Miss Heng is among 20 who are retiring. The others include Mrs Goh Hwee Choo from Tampines Junior College, Miss Chan Mee Leen from Chestnut Drive Secondary and Mr Loh Ai from Yuhua Secondary.
Miss Heng stands out also for heading a full school with primary and secondary sections.
She declined to be interviewed, but those who know her well related the successes chalked up during her years.
SCGS produced nine President’s Scholars, gained independent status for its secondary school in 1989 and moved from Emerald Hill to its Dunearn Road location in 1994. It has also won many fitness, dance and value-added awards.
In the 2006 school achievement table for secondary schools, the school was ranked in the top band with five other schools.
But Miss Heng’s legacy goes beyond facts and figures.
As she has said before: ‘What I want for the girls when they leave school is that they have confidence in themselves, that they are emotionally stable girls, happy that they’ve had a happy school life.’
More than anything, students and staff say she stands for integrity.
Nothing infuriated her more than parents who thought they could get their daughters into the popular school by offering a hefty donation or trying to impress with their connections.
School registrar Julie Lee, 52, said: ‘I tell them no, but some insist on seeing the principal.
‘So I say, ‘Sure, but let me do you a favour. Please do not mention anything about donating or drop any names. It’s sure to throw you to the back of the line’.’
Despite competition from other top-ranked schools for bright students, Miss Heng decided against introducing the Gifted Education Programme or starting an integrated programme to bypass the O-level examinations.
There was pressure from old girls and parents for the school to have these programmes, but Miss Heng insisted that she did not want to cause divisions among her girls.
And where other independent schools worked at raising the cut-off for enrolment at Secondary 1, SCGS retained all its primary pupils who qualified for the secondary Express stream.
So this year, for example, it took in girls with Primary School Leaving Examination scores of 201 to 265.
Some might criticise Miss Heng for being conservative, but Mrs Lee, who was taught history by Miss Heng, begged to differ: ‘She’s a historian, and makes decisions with a good understanding of where the school has come from.’
The school emphasises character development and good values and aims to produce ‘kim geks’ - a Peranakan-Hokkien metaphor for women who are treasures because they embody the virtues of filial piety, gentility, kindness, propriety and diligence.
SCGS board member Euleen Goh, who is chairman of International Enterprise Singapore, said of Miss Heng: ‘She has left a deep imprint as a principal in the way she has cared for each student, so that they have a confident, well-balanced life.’
On a lighter note, Miss Heng’s reputation of being fearsome is such that some swear she has eyes in the back of her head.
An SCGS legend has it that one class who tried to play a trick on her received a taste of their own medicine instead.
The girls had planned to ambush her with a stink bomb in class. Miss Heng turned up, wrote a few history questions on the blackboard and said, without turning her head:
‘I think I have a cold. Could you close the windows?’
After the windows were shut tight, she said: ‘Okay, girls. Do the questions, and I’ll be back.’
She left, slammed the classroom door shut and left the pranksters with a lesson to remember.
Beneath her no-nonsense persona, staff and students say, there lies a good sport prepared to laugh at herself, and someone who never fails to give support to staff or students in need.
Once, she arranged for an entire level of girls to visit a drug rehabilitation centre to help a girl who had gone astray, and to show them the harmful consequences of drugs.
Even though she has retired, Miss Heng plans to help out at SCGS as an adviser as long as she is needed.
But one thing not on the cards, contrary to a hot rumour in circulation, is marriage.
Mrs Lee said with a laugh: ‘That rumour follows her with every long holiday she takes.’
Both my alma maters have progressed beyond recognition, and both principals have changed. All those “I’ve gotta pay a visit to SCGS/NYJC one of these days” will not form on my lips again because there is hardly any reason to. The few teachers who are still there, or the even fewer that recognize me won’t really pay attention to my minimal past existence as a schoolgirl-in-blue, do they? The meepok uncle has passed away too, providing one more reason not to visit…but I guess it’ll be nice to just take a look, and reminisce in the happy times…the hydroponics garden, the koi pond that we all stoned in front of from time to time, the amphitheatre where we always played scissors-paper-stone, the spiral staircases, our own auditorium where we had countless performances & talks, the canteen that was rampant with crows (that ate our food too) the band room (that used to be the music room which we had to share with the choir, which caused some disagreements), the courtyard where I have done push-ups with the trumpet section, as well as waited furtively for the ‘O’ levels, and pubescent girls in their armpit-perspiration-stained uniforms.
If I didn’t read this article about Ms Heng stepping down, some emotions might have remained unstirred for a long time. I’m glad Ms Heng is gonna be like a Principal-mentor. Ms Heng has been like the hallmark of the spirit of SCGS, so without her, I don’t know if it’ll be the same.
No distinctively-coloured bras showing under the PE shirt or exposed under the pinafore, no fingernails that shows white parts when the palm faces you, no outrageously-coloured hair accesories, no earrings more than 0.5cm in diameter (and only one pair of earrings allowed i.e. no multiple piercings), skirts must not be more than 3 fingers above the knee, no ankle socks, etc etc. I loved the fact that we could wear our PE shirts for the whole day instead of having to change in and out of them for PE lessons like most of the other schools. Okay, I don’t miss those rules, I just miss having that sense of belonging to the mass of people who had to follow them. I miss sitting in the canteen with a group of buddies at every recess time. I never really had to worry about sitting alone because I always had good friends around. I didn’t care much about the crow snatching my drumstick away, because heck, I had pals. But now…
Us SCGS girls will probably meet again in 2050, when the time capsule will be opened…
10 years in that skimpy blue dress. Okay, although I’m not part of the typical SCGS kimgek calibre, nor do I identify myself as very SCGS-fied, my love for SCGS, is.
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