Bukit Panjang Primary was not at present CashewRd

Mr S. Rajamanickam interviewed by Chan Kim Yin in May 2018 Bukit Panjang English (Primary) School (started since 1932) was located where Junction10 now stands. Bukit Panjang was the only English School. That was built in 1932. It was the only school, and it had very few students. So at the end of each year, Mary Boswell and the Principal, and the Assemblyman (now called MP), Mr Goh Tong Liang, and a few other people like Mr Teo Sa Tee (who owned a liquor shop), they used to go house-to-house to beg the parents to send the children to this school (because there were very few students). Many didn’t because they said they were going to convert to Christians. Malays refused to come. Chinese were well to do and they wanted to go to Chinese schools. The only people here – there were more Indians --civil servants – they sent their children to that school. Then very slowly, 3-4 years, then they had a good number of classes. This was from 1951 to 1952. The school started in 1932; and when the war years came, the School reopened in 1946. The principals were all Eurasian or European principals. I joined the School in 1951, the Principal then was C. A. Peterson, a graduate from Hong Kong. We had small classes with 8, 6, 14, etc. There were only 3 or 4 classes, although the building had about some 15 classrooms both upstairs and downstairs. The original Bukit Panjang Primary was not at its present location at Cashew. That (old) School has been knocked down along with its field and the Police station. All gave way to the LRT (now called Junction10). Where the Esso station now stands was a timbre yard. And, there was a circle – and on the right of the circle was a post office where the family lived upstairs. And at the corner of Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang was a police station. The very next building was Bukit Panjang Primary School. Junction 10 today was the location of the School. The School, the field, everything from the canal to the road became Junction 10. The railway line was there; it was at the back of the school. Beyond that, and where the current Bukit Panjang Post Office is, was all wild belukar.