Encik Ahmad Ibrahim

Story of Encik Ahmad Ibrahim

Encik Ahmad Ibrahim was a well-respected statesman. He was admired for his invaluable contributions to Singapore’s early nation-building years as the Health Minister and later the Labour Minister. When he died at a young age in 1962, a state funeral was held for him. The school was named after Encik Ahmad Ibrahim to honour his contributions to Singapore posthumously.

Significance of the School Name – Living out the AI Spirit

Being named after Encik Ahmad Ibrahim serves as a reminder and an inspiration for our teachers and students to emulate his qualities of determination, courage, integrity and service. The school strives to live out these qualities through our core school values and school programmes.

For example, one of the school core values is Resilience, and in Encik Ahmad Ibrahim we can find a good role model who exemplified this value.

Encik Ahmad Ibrahim was appointed as Minister for Labour in 1961, the year which saw the rise of the communists in Singapore. It was a difficult time for him then. As former Minister, Mr Othman Wok, described, it was a heavy responsibility Encik Ahmad Ibrahim took on. The Labour ministry he was in charge of faced the greatest amount of pressure, but he never swayed from his duties.

In Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School, we hope to develop a resilient spirit in our students as well. So, we have a special programme, Outdoor Learning Experience or OLE in short. The students get outdoors, do kayaking and rock climbing, hike in the nature reserves, pitch tents in the Malaysian national parks. These outdoor activities stretch over 4 days, so the students learn to build up their mental and emotional strength as they take on the physical challenges. We hope that in the process, our students will develop, “the great guts” and “great determination”, qualities which our former Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew used to describe Encik Ahmad Ibrahim. Introduced in 2005, OLE has provided the unique collective memories that define the AI identity and heritage as batches after batches of AI students will remember it years after they leave school.

Encik Ahmad Ibrahim is well-remembered for his spirit to serve the people and nation. The school’s service learning programme aims to nurture in our students this same spirit of service to the community. In Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School, we take a whole school approach to service learning. Yearly, every class from Sec 1 to 5 undertakes a service learning project of their choice. It’s entirely student-initiated: the students find out about the various community groups that need help, decide which community service project they want to take up, plan and execute it. They work on it for a whole term of 8 to 9 weeks. On the last day of the 1st school term which is marked as Community Day, the whole school goes out to all parts of Singapore and carries out various community service projects. This is another way we live out the values of Encik Ahmad Ibrahim.