SINGAPORE — In the wake of the announcement in April last year that eight junior colleges (JCs) will be combining in 2019, the schools involved immediately swung into action to gather inputs on the possible new names for the merged JCs.

Teachers’ views were sought at staff meetings and students were tasked to brainstorm new names during civics lessons, while the schools’ alumni and college advisory committees were also asked for their suggestions, including on social media.

Names thrown up for the merged institution comprising Jurong JC and Pioneer JC (PJC) included “Orion”, “Tembusu” and “Meranti”. Stakeholders at Yishun JC (YJC) and Innova JC (IJC) came up with “Aurora” and “Yusof Ishak”, among other possible names, while their counterparts at Meridian JC (MJC) thought “Zenith” could be a suitable name to adopt when the school merges with Tampines JC.

The whole process entailed a period of soul-searching among the educators, alumni and students as they thought about what they would like the merged college to stand for, they told TODAY.

PJC’s school staff developer Edwin Lim, 40, said that in coming up with suggestions, the stakeholders wanted to inject some symbolism in the proposed names. As stars and constellations signified “reaching for excellence”, names such as Orion were put forward, he said.

Various permutations and combinations of the JC’s names were also bandied about, while names such as Tembusu and Meranti were suggested for their “Singapore flavour”, and because the trees stood for stability and wisdom, he added.

For YJC and IJC, which are located in the northern part of the island, inspiration was drawn from the school’s geographic location in coming up with Aurora, in reference to the Northern Lights. However, there were some concerns that it could be “hard to pronounce”, Yishun JC subject head for physical education and co-curricular activity Karthikesan Kumar, 31, said with a laugh.

There was also a suggestion to name the combined Yishun JC and Innova JC after Singapore’s first President Yusof Ishak — not only is the proposed name historically significant, the initials would also match the first letters of the JCs’ individual names, Mr Karthikesan added.

For MJC, some of the suggestions including Zenith were based on what the original name symbolised: The highest point, and “reaching for (greater) height and excellence”, said MJC head of human resources development and school staff developer Wee Liang Tong, 44. In brainstorming for potential names, the school communities tried their best to “capture the essence” of both institutions. The name “Tampines” is derived from the Ironwood tree known to locals as Tempinis.

Mr Wee, who teaches English literature, said: “It got us to rethink about what (MJC) stands for, what represents our core values… so (it) went back to star, to height, to reaching out, and we discovered it’s something common to both schools that we could all strive for, so it was a discovery (for us).”

About one-and-a-half weeks ago, the Ministry of Education announced that the merged JCs will combine the full names of both schools.

While this meant that none among the list of possible names was taken up, those involved said they were nevertheless happy with the final outcome.

Biology teacher Esther Lee, 38, who was originally from Jurong JC but moved over to Pioneer JC this year, noted that the combined names were what some of the schools had wanted at the beginning. “We were all pleasantly surprised that both names were retained, just like what (we) originally suggested… I think it’s about maintaining fairness on both sides,” she said.