concentration camp to detain people for examination during the Sook Ching massacre. After the war, the school resumed its predominant Chinese education. In the 1950s and 1960s, during periods of civil unrest in Singapore, many students, teachers and alumni participated in or led the anti-colonial riots. A number of students were arrested by police during the riots, and some were expelled by the school. On 13 May 1953, TCHS students made an impromptu march to the Singapore city centre in protest over arrests of their fellow schoolmates. They subsequently barricaded themselves at the TCHS campus, and were soon caught in violent confrontations with the police. The situation was finally defused after the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Lee Kong Chian, flew back from London and mediated a resolution between student leaders and the police. In 1961, another major demonstration occurred when Secondary Four students refused to sit for government examinations, when it was announced Singapore would switch to the "four-two" system, where the national examination was moved to be after the completion of four years of secondary education. Singapore schools including TCHS had previously utilised the "three-three" system. In 1967, a group of students attacked then-Vice Principal Teh Kim Fatt on the campus, prompting then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to visit him in the hospital. Teh would later become Principal, but resigned in February 1972 over discourse with the student population. The national trend in Singapore was that schools began pursuing English as the medium of education. As workplaces switched to English as working language, a Chinese education became greatly devalued. In fact, it was reported that job applicants preferred to show their 'O' Level certificates, rather than present a university degree from Chinese-medium universities such as Nanyang University. This contributed to a slide in TCHS' fortunes, and it was reported the school, like many other Chinese-medium schools, had been on the brink of closure. According to Tooh Fee San, then a sitting board member on the Ministry of Education's sports board, "nobody bothered to listen...to the reports from Hwa Zhong". On 12 December 1978, Tooh became TCHS' new Principal, and he would be in charge for the introduction of the Special Assistance Plan. Transformation Upon the appointment of Tooh as Principal in 1978, The Chinese High School became one of the first nine schools to be part of the Special Assistance Plan. The Ministry of Education conceived the