CIS Tanjong Katong: Our Family’s School Fee Story

When we moved to Singapore with a school-age child, school fees became one of the larger numbers in the family budget.

My son attended Canadian International School at its Tanjong Katong campus. I wrote about our costs in May 2022. This is an account of that period, not a guide to enrolling at that campus today.

The school bill

The approximate figures I recorded were:

• S$6,500 for the application and confirmation fees: a one-off cost at admission.
• S$36,500 a year for tuition in grades 4–6, paid in two instalments.
• An additional S$5,000 a year for English Language Learners support, if needed.

The distinction mattered. A tuition figure on its own did not describe every cost a family might face. Nor would another child, grade or school year necessarily have produced the same bill.

At the time, my son had tried several times to get into a local public school; in the end he moved to a less expensive international school. I tell that part of the story in the Invictus article.

I used to joke that I worked in Singapore to pay for my son’s education. Looking at those figures, it was not an especially complicated joke.

The Tanjong Katong campus has closed

CIS announced that this campus would close in June 2023, with students transferring to Lakeside in August 2023. The change is stated in the school’s official prospectus.

These photographs therefore show a former campus. Anyone considering CIS now should start with the current school website and request fees for the relevant child and programme.

The old campus is part of our family’s Singapore story. The old invoice is a reminder of how quickly a new country can teach you its arithmetic.