In 2008, the school transitioned from an all-girls school to a coeducational school. There was some opposition from former female graduates who wanted the school to retain its status as an all-girls school.[1] After becoming coeducational, the school officially changed its name to Kuen Cheng High School. The school is notable for its low acceptance rate, and only primary school students with results above a certain grade threshold are accepted. It is one of the most prestigious high schools in Malaysia, with 58.97% of its students scoring 5As or above in the 2019 SPM examinations.[2]
School badge
The school badge was designed by Chan Xin in 1953. The principal at the time was Lin Bao Quan. The school emblem has three colors, namely blue, white and red, representing the blue sky, purity and passion respectively. The triangle in the school badge represents intellectuality, morals, and sports which are the main ideals of the Kuen Cheng High School education syllabus. The red orchid flower in the middle is the symbol of the school.
Principals
Principals had complete authority over both the primary school and the secondary school until 1957, when these roles were split due to a government education development plan that might have been affected if the joint administration had continued. After 1957, each division (secondary school and primary school) has had separate administrative units. In 1990, Gooi Swee Gaik was in charge of the secondary school. She is the longest serving principal in the school's history (28 years). She retired in 2018, passing the reins to Chua Lee Lee, the school's former academic head and vice-principal.[3]
Kuen Cheng High School was founded in the year 1908, making it one of the oldest educational establishments in Malaysia.
Kuen Cheng High School was the first educational institution in Malaysia to offer formal education for females at a time when education to girls was considered irrelevant in Chinese traditional culture.
Based on the prevailing social neglect of women's education, the founders of Kuen Cheng Girls' High School, Wu Xuehua, principal Zhong Zhuo Jing, his wife, Yoshiko Watanabe, and Cheong Yoke Choy upheld female education and aimed to break the traditional concept. The school was given the name "Kuen Cheng Girls' School" and its first location was at Kampung Kuala Lumpur in a rented double-story shop lot. The school aimed to implement a hybrid teaching system, focusing on the Chinese Language, characters, arithmetic and more. There were a mere 18 students when the school first started.
In 1909, the school moved to Harmony Street and began to develop. In 1915, the school founded its own kindergarten, opening up opportunities in Chinese education for young children. In 1936, Kuen Cheng was commissioned by the Selangor Department of Education to be an excellent training institution for teachers, and nurtured many outstanding teachers, making great contributions to Chinese education. In 1941 during World War II, the Japanese army invaded the country, and the school was forced to close. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the school and its kindergarten were reopened with the support of a group of enthusiastic educators. The school was officially functioning again in 1946. In 1956, the school moved to its current location at Jalan Syed Putra. In 1957, there were 49 students in the first class of graduates. In 1962, Kuen Cheng strived to preserve Chinese education and decided to maintain its position as an independent Chinese school, and its status was officially changed to an "independent secondary school", not receiving any funding from the federal government.
The front building (Block A) of the school facing Jalan Syed Putra
In 2008, the 100th year since the school foundation, Kuen Cheng decided to convert its enrollment from all girls to a co-educational system, in order to keep up with the culture of a modern society, where males and females are viewed equally and have equal rights. In the same year, the school received its first class of male students, despite resentments from some alumni. In 2013, Kuen Cheng High School's 57th year of Higher Secondary 3 (Senior) graduates became the first co-educational graduates of the school. In 2015, Kuen Cheng High School had been rated 5 stars as one of the Schools of Excellence in Malaysia by the Ministry of Education.
Presently, the restructuring of the school from an all-girls school to a co-educational system seems to have many benefits, as the student population soared to new heights, with the number of enrolled students this year exceeding 4,500 students. The school now has a 100% full enrollment and had many applicants rejected due to the high number of applications to the school.
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