CLASSMATES.....Amirah Wahid learns with her ethnic Chinese classmates. Behind her are (from left, row by row) Manchini Jiunn Chong, Chloe Mae Pang and Raphael Lo Zheng Xuen.
By : SHALINA ROSENI
IT STARTED life in 1917 as a private school with 30 pupils. The Chung Hwa Chinese primary school in Kota Kinabalu founded by Oh Hou Teck, an ethnic Chinese entrepreneur of Fujian, has since grown into a government-aided one of 2,324. But it has never ceased to live on charity.
Recently the S P Setia Foundation, thanks to Sabah deputy chief minister Dr Yee Moh Chai, gave it 1,000 desks and chairs that cost almost 60,000 ringgit ($18,815). They are a timely gift to replace worn out ones in its 48 classrooms, according to Chong Lee Li, a teacher who has been with the school for 15 years.
Lee Lam Thye, the foundation chairman, says it was Dr Yee who alerted his foundation of the school’s plight. In his own sure and quiet way Dr Yee, who is also minister of resource development and information technology, has helped with school repairs and a basketball court, according to Eng Thiam Leong, the school principal. In 2005 Dr Yee created a teachers' day greeting card with which pupils honour their teachers every year.
Founded in 1917 with 30 pupils, Chung Hwa now has 2,324 pupils but it is still dependent on handouts.
S P Setia foundation is the charity arm of one of Malaysia’s property conglomerates. It is turning a 25-hectare (60-acre) site of the Sabah State Railway in Tanjung Aru into a 1.6-billion ringgit ($528m) township and transport hub.
The government pays the salaries of the school’s 89 teachers. But Chung Hwa has to depend on donations for its upkeep. The Kota Kinabalu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry which owns it has been giving it between 30,000 and 50,000 ringgit a year. And the Sabah government gives it an annual grant of about 80,000 ringgit.
Pupils do not pay fees. About 30% of them are Malays, Kadazandusuns and Muruts.
Lee says his foundation has given 150,000 ringgit to kindergartens in Penampang and Keningau on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu. It has also paid 188,000 ringgit for a community learning centre at Kampung Kalampun in Keningau. (Insight Sabah)
sekolah kini makin ramai mendapat pelahar yang bukan cina, ini menunjukkan sekolah ini makin diterima.
ReplyDeleteRamai ibu bapa bukan kaum cina menghantar anak2 mereka ke sekolah2 cina.
DeleteJadi kalau sekolah ini mendapat sambutan semestinya sekolah ini perlu mendapat perhatian daripada kerajaan.
ReplyDeleteKerajaan tidak mengabaikan sekolah aliran cina. Pasti kerajaan sentiasa membantu semua sekolah di M'sia.
ReplyDeleteBiasanya kalau sekolah cina mereka mendapat dana dari ibubapa/PIBG.
ReplyDeletesatu lagi bukti perpaduan kaum di Sabah.. tidak seperti sekolah2 di semenanjung yang mana sebelum ini guru2nya telah membuat kenyataan racist..
ReplyDelete