National service (NS) was introduced in post-independence Singapore when the National Service (Amendment) Act came into effect on 17 March 1967. Then Defence Minister Goh Keng Swee justified the government’s decision to introduce compulsory conscription of male ...
Lim Peng Siang (b. 1872, Fujian, China–d. 1944, Singapore) was a Chinese merchant who made significant contributions to Singapore’s economic and social developments in the early 1900s. He was a prominent leader of the Chinese community and held key positions in ...
The People’s Association (PA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) that was established on 1 July 1960 through the People’s Association Ordinance. Officially, the PA was formed to achieve two objectives: first, to develop ...
The Public Service Division (PSD) was established under the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on 3 January 1983 to serve as the central body dealing with matters relating to personnel management and career development in the civil service. These matters had previously ...
The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) is a government agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Headquartered at 407 Upper Changi Road North, it administers 14 institutions in Singapore. In addition to ensuring the secure custody of inmates, the prison service works ...
The Singapore government introduced national service (NS) in 1967 to develop and maintain a credible defence force manned by Singapore’s citizens, given the withdrawal of British military forces from the city-state by the 1970s. Since then, all male Singapore citizens ...
The American Club is a community and social club set up on 14 September 1948. The club provides recreational and community services for its members. These include having a meal at Thyme Café or Eagle’s Nest, finding a good read in its library of 20,000 books, working ...
Seet Ai Mee (Dr) (b. 31 March 1943, Singapore–) was Singapore’s first female Cabinet minister. She assumed the position in July 1991 when she was appointed Acting Minister for Community Development in a cabinet reshuffle. Seet is also known for her contributions ...
The Public Service Commission (PSC) is the government agency responsible for the appointment, promotion, transfer, dismissal and exercise of disciplinary control over public officers in Singapore. It has another role as the administrator of government-funded scholarships ...
Molly, the Mobile Library, affectionately known as Molly, is a mobile library bus operated by the National Library Board (NLB). The service began in 1960 under the NLB’s predecessor, the National Library, and was relaunched as Molly on 3 April 2008 to reach out ...
Singapore’s earliest attempt to introduce compulsory conscription was in 1952. The endeavour was unsuccessful as it was vigorously resisted by Chinese middle school students and their parents, who did not see the need to support the British colonial government’s ...
Audiovisual Services were first introduced in December 1982 when the Arts Resource Centre (ARC) was established in the Reference Services Division at the National Library at 91, Stamford Road. The service was made possible by funds provided by the Cultural Foundation. ...
In support of Singapore’s educational and cultural development, part-time branch libraries were started by the Raffles Library in the 1950s, with the first of these set up at Upper Serangoon in 1953. Stocked with books for juniors and adults, such as dictionaries, ...
Located at 6 Toa Payoh Central, Singapore, Toa Payoh Community Library (previously known as Toa Payoh Branch Library), as it was then known, was opened on 7 February 1974. Equipped to serve about 250,000 residents in Toa Payoh, it was the second full-time branch ...
The Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA) is an umbrella body of Chinese clan associations in Singapore. The Federation was registered on 9 December 1985 and formally inaugurated on 27 January 1986. It was founded by seven clan associations, ...
The Staff Training Institute was set up in 1971 by the government for the training of civil servants in order to enhance the efficiency of the public sector. The establishment of the institute marked an important milestone in the training of civil servants in ...
At the heart of the civic and cultural district of Singapore is the Padang, a large open field in front of the former City Hall and Supreme Court buildings (presently home to the National Gallery Singapore). The Padang, which means field or open ground in Malay, ...
Void decks are the open spaces located on the ground floor of Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks of flats. These were introduced in blocks built after 1969. The void deck is generally defined by the structural columns of the block. Small kiosks selling ...
Hawker centres are open-air complexes that house many stalls selling a wide variety of affordably priced food. They are mostly conveniently located at the heart of housing estates, usually with adjourning wet markets. Hawker centres are a unique aspect of Singapore ...
Between 1980 and 1995, the National Library embarked on the computerisation of its library operations and services. To keep abreast with the information technology (IT) revolution, new audiovisual, multimedia and online services were also launched. Decentralisation ...