By Isaac Chan (25A01B), Valerie Ng (25S06N)
In 2025, beginning with the Batch of 2026, it was announced that Y56 Rafflesians would no longer be allowed to take on two Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs). The only dual-CCA combinations allowed would be Council and a non-schedule-conflicting CCA.
This is a marked change from the Batch of 2025’s and prior batches’ experience: while most would stick to one CCA, many Clubs and Societies saw their members taking on another CCA, often a higher-commitment one.
Why The Change?
It comes as no surprise that the academic workload students face is demanding, and sometimes borders on insurmountable. Having to juggle this (heavy) workload, along with the numerous other commitments such as CCA, social life, and responsibilities outside of school, is clearly no mean feat.
The previous dual-CCA system only exacerbated this issue, as evidenced by the increasing trend of students being spread too thin among all their responsibilities (that can feel like mere obligations due to the sheer workload). By restricting the number of CCAs students can take up to just one, the school administration hopes that students will be able to better manage their commitments, both in and out of school, as well as have more free time to spend with their families and friends.
“The school also hopes that students will now be able to pursue their single CCA at a deeper level and reap more gains from that CCA, rather than spread themselves too thin in the pursuit of breadth”, reasons Mr Carlsen Tay (ADH, CCA), and instead, receive shallow exposure and commitment that benefits no one – not themselves, and not the CCA as a whole.
Perhaps another reason (that is not as immediately obvious to the student body as the first) for this switch to the single-CCA policy is the strain the previous dual-CCA system exacted upon the school’s resources. With RI’s astounding number of some 70 CCAs (before the shutdown of some of them), there must, of course, be someone behind the scenes running the show.
This means having enough teachers to be present during CCA sessions, having enough venues to support the needs of each and every CCA, and more. Over time, the school administration found that having all these CCAs remain would simply not be sustainable – this further served as a catalyst for the switch to the single-CCA policy.
How CCAs Got Hit
With some CCAs in RI, especially Clubs and Societies, being historically popular second CCA choices, the single-CCA policy has hit some CCAs and their membership numbers this year. Indian Cultural Club (ICS) is one of such CCAs — most members typically are also involved in another CCA alongside ICS.
With the new policy, ICS’s membership count dropped to four, which poses challenges for their CCA events and activities. Chairperson Shresta Suresh (25S06F) shares that events are forced to be lower-scale because of their manpower shortages.
Shresta is herself in two CCAs whilst being Chairperson of ICS: she is also in Raffles Interact. Asked about her experience, she explains, “Since I am in two clubs, it is very manageable and I’ve never had the problem of coping with my CCAs or not having time to catch up with my schoolwork.”
She does see the merit of the policy though, agreeing that it does let students focus on exploring one particular interest. However, for clubs like ICS, where the scope might be less intense, the opportunity to explore multiple interests while remaining manageable is unfortunately lost.
What Y6s Say
Betty Ding (25A01B), who is in Raffles Crew and who is also the Vice-Chairperson (Training) of Raffles Press, has found her experience with these two CCAs largely enjoyable. “AVU (now Crew) is pretty low-commitment, we don’t have regular sessions,” she explains. “I don’t find it that time-consuming. It’s pretty fun, especially when these two CCAs can help each other. I’ve integrated some of my AVU knowledge into my articles too,” she quips.
Asked about her thoughts on the new one-CCA system, Betty says, “It’s kind of sad in the sense that… there are so many opportunities for CCAs to collaborate.” While collaboration is harder with the decrease in intersections of members between CCAs, she also mentions how one CCA is the norm in primary and secondary school, and that it might only feel strange because RI’s practice of allowing multiple CCAs was unorthodox in the first place.
Indeed, as writers both with CCAs that are, in some sense, higher commitment alongside Press, we echo Betty’s sentiment. The dual-CCA system allowed us to learn sometimes completely disparate skills and delve into our diverse interests despite our busy schedules — in some sense, it is a pity that the possibility of taking two has been removed.
The interplay of skills between our CCAs, for example, being able to interview your own teammates for an article covering the other CCA’s competition for Raffles Press, is also a key learning point that will unfortunately be forgone.
Yet, the rationale does make sense: while most opt for one higher-commitment and one lower-commitment CCA, being in two and not fully knowing the commitment levels of CCAs before joining can come with tradeoffs and tolls on academic workload and mental health.
So, What Now?
There is, indeed, some unfortunate loss in terms of the kind of interdisciplinary learning possible with two CCAs previously. However, that’s not to say that one CCA is a detriment to the CCA experience: focusing on one CCA allows members to deepen their understanding of that CCA and hone their craft while not being forced to treat one CCA as peripheral during crunch periods.
It also lets CCAs, particularly Clubs and Societies that are usually picked as second CCAs, to develop their members more and push them further in the respective fields with less worry about stressing their members out too much because of having to juggle two CCAs.
As the school settles into this new norm, we can perhaps look forward with cautious optimism to both CCAs and students developing their co-curricular skills more deeply and dedicatedly in the years ahead.
This article is originally featured in our School Matters 2025 Special Edition.
