Montfort Junior School to take in girls from 2028

In the past five years, MJS has consistently taken in five Primary 1 classes each year, he added, noting that the Hougang campus where both the primary and secondary schools are located is in a mature estate. 

St Gabriel’s Foundation, which oversees six schools including the Montfort schools, and the Ministry of Education are discussing whether Montfort Secondary School will also take in girls, the press release read.

When asked about this development, Mr Lim said the secondary school will start accepting female students by the time the first batch of girls from the primary school graduate, which would allow them to benefit from the affiliation between the two schools. 

“You’ve got to give it the parents too, those who are going to register. By the time my daughter gets to finishing P6, can she continue in Montfort?” he added. 

Maris Stella High School (Primary) and Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) will also become coed schools in 2027 and 2030, respectively. 

Discussions around the future of the Montfort Schools and the decision to go coed began in 2019, said Mr Lim. 

Among older generations of Montfort alumni, there was a strong sentiment that the school should remain a boys’ school, he added. 

“There are also those who feel that the way to teach boys and the way to teach girls can be different.” 

But Montfort schools accepting female students is not entirely new, he noted. In the 1960s and 1970s before junior colleges were established, Montfort was one of the schools designated as a centre for pre-university students taking the A-Level examinations, said Mr Lim, who shared that he was one of these students. 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Montfort School also went through discussions about merging with Hai Sing Catholic School, then known as Hai Sing Girls’ High School, he added. 

Some alumni were quite emotional about the decision because they believed in the “sense of brotherhood” that came with the school’s status as a single-sex school for males, he said. 

“But there were others who were not so hung up on that … I myself experienced coeducation at A-Levels in the same school, so I didn’t have the same feelings as some of the others who felt so strongly about it,” he said, adding that many alumni members also recognise that the decision is a practical one. 

When asked why the decision was not taken earlier given that discussions had started years ago, Mr Lim said the foundation did not want to “ram it down people’s throats”, and took the time to talk to those who felt strongly about the issue. 

Young parents today prefer to send their children to coeducational primary schools to avoid going through the Primary 1 registration exercise more than once, he noted. 

Having children in the same school is also logistically more convenient for parents, said Mr Lim. 

As to whether the other two schools under the foundation’s umbrella – St Gabriel’s Primary and Secondary schools – will also start to take in girls, he confirmed that the idea has been floated but is still under discussion. 

“There are no decisions yet. There are some discussions about whether they should follow Montfort or not, no decision has been taken as yet.”