KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Tshung Tsin Secondary School (STTSS) will soon have a new five-storey hostel that can accommodate up to 270 students.
STTSS board of governors chairman Datuk Jimmy Yong Kyok Ming said the school expected the hostel, which cost RM6 million to build, to be completed by mid 2015.
He said the present hostel at the school could only accommodate up to 72 students, which would be insufficient to meet the increasing demand in another year.
“As a result there is an urgent need to build this new hostel building.
“We are very grateful that the committed and dedicated leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, parents, teachers, ex-students and the public have made it possible for this to happen,” he said at the ground breaking ceremony for the hostel here yesterday.
The event was graced by the Minister of Special Tasks Datuk Teo Chee Kang, who represented Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman.
Yong said Musa was one of the school’s biggest supporters, who has helped STTSS by sending out letters to some 50 organizations seeking support for the project.
Some of the organizations have responded generously, he added.
“We are also grateful to our Sabah government, which is the first state government in Malaysia to give independent schools in Sabah an annual grant of RM2 million.
“This is strong evidence that our government plays an active as well as participating role in education.”
Yong said the ground breaking ceremony yesterday and the official start of the construction of the five-storey hostel, was the culmination of more than five decades of hard work to realize the school’s dream and aspiration to become a leading Chinese private independent school in Sabah.
“The award of a five-star status has been accorded a second time and the standard of excellence in performance in both academics and extra-curricular activities is being maintained.
“This year’s Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) results again exceeded our expectations and parents are beaming with pride.”
Being a pioneer of Chinese education in Sabah, Yong said the school needed to continue to provide the best education to our children and to our children’s children.
With increasing demand for school places, STTSS is now forced to accept more students that it planned, he said.
“This year’s intake of Junior One students is 520, making our total student population of 2,530.
“The number of outstation students is also on the increase. Without this building we cannot offer our facilities to students who are from other areas of Sabah.”
On another note, Yong said Teo is an alumnus of STTSS and the school was proud of the latter’s achievements.