Content area
Full text
(STF) - In spite of changing times, Malacca High School's quaint last link with the State's chequered past remains untouched. DANIEL CHAN writes.
MHS' current principal, the 35th, is Ya'amah Mohd Dris who assumed the position from March this year, with Leong Huay Kow as senior assistant 1, and Johan Omar as senior assistant 2 in charge of student affairs.
Ya'amah's predecessors were Thomas H. Moore (from 1826), John Overee (1843), T. Smith (1862), A. Armstrong (1878), J. Howell (1893, the longest serving at 23 years), C.F.C. Ayre (1916), C. Beamish (1921), C.G. Coleman (1924), T.A.O. Sullivan (1930), L.W. Arnold (1931), L.A.S. Jermyn (1934), C.A. Scott and Lee Chin Lin (1941), Goh Tiow Chong (1945), C. Foster and C.J. Gurney (1946), G.P. Dartford (1950), F.T. Laidlaw and E.H. Bromley (1952), A. Atkinson (1956), W. Gibson (1957), K. Kandiah and Ee Tiang Hong (1958), C.T. Wade and Goh Keat Seng (1960), Tan Teik Hong (1965), Lim Leng Lee (1969), K. Anandarajan (1970), Chan Ying Tat (1977), Haji Abdul Rafie Mahat (1985), Mohamad Ismail (1991), Hussin Abu Bakar (1994), Md Zin Abdul Hamid (1996), and Othman Ibrahim (1997).
A caring school, MHS has instituted no less than eight funds or awards for the benefit of poor or deserving students. The longest established, from 1959, is the Poor Pupils Fund, initiated by the then principal K. Kandiah and other teachers. After Kandiah's death, this fund was renamed Kandiah Memorial Fund.
The other funds or awards were named in honour of past principals or former students, namely, C.T. Wade (from 1966), Dr S. Thambipillay (1969), M.P. Samy (1973), Abdul Rafie Mahat (1991), Mohamad Haji Ismail (1993), Hussin Abu Bakar (1994) and Datuk Halim Zakiah (2001).
MHS is a single-session school and the schooling hours are 7.40am to 2pm, which is the ideal, and afternoons can be devoted to co- curricular activities.
"Currently, there are altogether 62 classes, from Forms One to Upper Six. Form One has eight classes and all the other forms have nine classes," said Leong.
"Only the pre-university Lower Six and Upper Six are co-ed, with the boys coming from MHS itself and neighbouring St Francis Institution, and the girls from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Infant Jesus."
There are 457 arts and science students in Forms...