A Facebook post by the Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh's teacher in 2018 has been circulating widely online as the excitement of the 2020 general election begins to settle down.

Shared by Pritam's alma mater, St. Thomas Secondary School, his teacher, Lorene Nalpon, wrote about how Pritam used to be a "quiet and shy boy" in her Secondary One Normal (5) classes back then.

"Who would have thought that one of my quiet shy boys from Sec 1 Normal (5) of Saint Thomas would turn out to be a wonderfully eloquent and enigmatic leader of the opposition of Singapore's political arena," Lorene wrote in her post.

Pritam assumed the position of secretary-general of WP in April 2018, succeeding veteran politician Low Thia Khiang.

"I think being in the non-elistist school prepares an individual to understand and appreciate all that we have in Singapore and how to truly move society forward," she added in her post.

The post, although first shared almost two years ago, was reposted as a screenshot on the St. Thomas Secondary School Facebook page, calling Pritam a "Thomasian".

The school merged with Bukit Merah Secondary School in 2001.

After the WP's historic win of two GRCs and one SMC in the 2020 general election, some of his ex-schoolmates came forward to congratulate him on Facebook.

"Mr Pritam Singh, you make us proud," one Facebook user from the alumni Facebook group shared in a post.

From unassuming student to S'pore's first official leader of the opposition

In 2018, Pritam shared his life story with 470 young graduates from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), recounting a less-than-stellar academic journey.

Back when Pritam was in primary school, he didn’t do well in his Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and ended up entering the Normal stream in secondary school.

He then "really bumbled [his] way into junior college and university".

When he found out that he successfully enrolled in FASS, he felt like he had "hit the lottery" as he had not even expected to graduate in the first place.

He was also awarded a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) local study award scholarship for his undergraduate studies at NUS.

After entering politics at nearly 35 years old and becoming an opposition MP in 2011, he became the secretary-general of WP in 2018 and subsequently, after the results of the 2020 general election, was designated as the official leader as the opposition by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on July 11.

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Top image via Saint Thomas Secondary School/FB, Noorazan Ahmad/FB