RETHINKING NEIGHBOURHOOD SCHOOLS: AN EDUCATION LANDSCAPE IN RENTAL HOUSING ESTATES

Abstract

School-Community partnership have been a key focus globally in rejuvenating neighbourhoods with social problems, as well as a means to foster stronger communal relationships in recent years. Such new partnership which sees the school as a rich collection of specific resources as opposed to just a mere “educational institution”, provide firm foundation for educational renewal and community regeneration. Relating such partnership to the Singapore context, especially in low income rental housing neighbourhoods where the role of school could be significant in improving the social well being of the community, one may find various programmes which attempts to connect the community with the school. However, the impact of such programmes in building relationship with the communities is questionable. Moreover, while neighbourhood school design and planning could play a larger role in regenerating the community in these rental housing estates, schools are instead designed as ”fenced fortress”, with little or no relation with the community. Such design reflects the lack of trust between the two stakeholders, with school and communities in these estates seeing each other as strangers to be feared or avoided. With a community which sees much social issues in the neighbourhood, the role of schools is particularly important in such estates to empower and rejuvenate such communities. Therefore, such a “Not in my backyard (NIMBY)” design and planning of schools in these estates requires much rethinking. The aim and objective of this design thesis is therefore to explore alternate planning and design of neighbourhood schools in rental housing estates, which could better promote school-community partnership, so as to improve the social well being of students as well as the low income community in such estates.