Tabuan Jaya or Samarahan mulled as CHMS No.4 site

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Dato Richard Wee

Johnny Kon

KUCHING: The Board of Management for Kuching Chung Hua Middle School (CHMS) No. 1, 3 and 4 is considering relocating CHMS No. 4 to a residential area either in Tabuan Jaya or Samarahan in a bid to increase student intake, says board chairman Dato Richard Wee.

However, he said they have not identified a suitable plot of land for the relocation of the school, which is presently located at Jalan Haji Taha.

“We have been in discussion with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari (Tun Openg) on the relocation plan for CHMS No. 4 since one or two years ago.

“We have not gone into detail yet, but we are thinking of relocating it to either Tabuan Jaya or Samarahan where we can increase our student intake,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.

Wee was commenting on Abang Johari’s announcement Saturday that negotiations were ongoing to relocate CHMS No. 4 to a bigger piece of land within the city.

Wee said even though the board had not put together a concrete plan for the mooted relocation, they were grateful for Abang Johari’s assurance to assist them once the relocation had been decided.

He added that the board had also not gone into detail on the estimated relocation cost, but said it would be at
least RM6 million if based on the cost to relocate SJK Chung Hua Bako.

Meanwhile, CHMS No. 4 principal Johnny Kon when contacted extended his appreciation to Abang Johari for understanding the limitations of the school.

“The chief minister has been taking care of CHMS No. 4 and supportive of Chinese education in Sarawak.

“He understands the limitations of CHMS No. 4 and I believe he can do more to help our school,” he said.

Kon, who took over the school’s executive authority in June 2010, recalled that CHMS No. 4 only had 110 students in six classes back then.

The school had only one class each for the three levels of both Junior and Senior sections a decade ago, he said.

“Today, CHMS No. 4 has a total 405 students in 14 classes. We have three classes each for Junior 1 and Junior 2 while the rest – Junior 3, Senior 1, Senior 2 and Senior 3 – have two classes each.

“We aim at seeing three classes for each level of both Junior and Senior sections.

“At the moment, given our school’s capacity, 14 classes are just nice,” he added.

Kon said the school had to convert its auditorium into classrooms to meet the increasing need and that because of this, the school does not have a proper venue to carry out seminars or workshops for its
students.

“So far this year, we have registered 35 new students for the 2021 intake. In the last couple of years, we recorded new intake of about 100 every year, running three Junior 1 classes.

“Most of our new students come from Chung Hua Primary School (CHPS) No. 4, CHPS No. 6, SJK Chung Hua Mile 4 1/2 Penrissen, SJK Chung Hua Mile 10 Penrissen, SJK Chung Hua Mile 7 Matang, SK St Paul, SK Song Kheng Hai and CHPS No. 1.”

On Saturday, Abang Johari said the school’s current site is too small and not able to accommodate any more expansion.

The chief minister said the school’s board of management would decide which location they wanted the school to be relocated to, while assuring that the Sarawak government would assist with the process.

A view of CHMS No. 4 at Jalan Haji Taha.