The recent announcement of the merger of eight junior colleges has generated many views and concerns, especially from the alumni of the JCs to be merged (Affected JC alumni hopeful cultures will be integrated; May 1).

They mourned the loss of heritage and identity.

Many also expressed strong emotional attachments with the schools they had graduated from.

In the merger and acquisition of commercial entities, it is not uncommon for the name of the acquired entity to be retained in the merged entity.

For example, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi came about from the merger of Mitsubishi Bank with the Bank of Tokyo in 1996.

To partly allay the alumni's concern about the loss of identity and heritage, the Education Ministry may want to consider retaining part of the name of the merged JC with that of the surviving one.

For example, in the case of Jurong JC, which is to be merged with Pioneer JC, the name for the merged school could be Pioneer-Jurong JC.

This would help to preserve a semblance of the identity of Jurong JC, and may give the alumni some consolation.

Ong Kim Bock