Kuen Cheng High School or SM Kuen Cheng, formerly known as Kuen Cheng Girls' High School, is an independent secondary Chinese school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which was established in 1908. The school is located at Jalan Syed Putra near Istana Negara, and is situated between Brickfields and Bukit Petaling. 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. After becoming coeducational, the school officially changed its name to Kuen Cheng High School.
School Badge Design
The school badge is designed in 1953. The principal at the time was Principal Lin Bao Quan. The designer is Mr. Chan Xin. The school emblem has three colors, blue, white and red, each representing blue sky, purity and passion. The triangle of the school badge represents intellectual, moral, and sports that as known as physical development, and it is the main idea of Kuen Cheng High School education syllabus. The red orchid flower in the middle is the symbol of the school.
Principals
Over the years, 14 principals have been in office. 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 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. She retired in 2018, passing the reins to Chua Li Li, the school's former academic head and vice-principal.
Education objectives
Kuen Cheng High School claims to spread noble Chinese values and culture through education. The school aims to develop young men and women with active and creative minds, a sense of understanding and compassion for one another, and the courage to act according to their beliefs. Besides, their education goal is also to produce students with moral and ethical values with passion for a lifelong education. As the minority in the education system of Malaysia, Kuen Cheng as a Chinese independent school strives to preserve and maintain traditional values. To discover recent happenings in the world, the school always tries to improve the quality of education in either teaching methods or equipment.
Past and present
Chinese education in Malaysia boasts more than a century, and Kuen Cheng High School was founded in the year 1908. In 2018, the school celebrated its 110th anniversary commemoration, making it one of the oldest and most successful educational establishments in Malaysia. Kuen Cheng High School was the first educational institution in Malaysia to offer proper education for females. The school functioned to teach girls at a time when Chinese traditional culture considered female education to be less important. The school aimed to train and nurture female elites in a society where educated females were a rarity. Based on the prevailing social neglect of women's education, the founders of Kuen Cheng Girls' High School, Miss Wu Xuehua, Principal Zhong Zhuo Jing, his wife, Yoshiko Watanabe, and also 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. Chinese education has developed for more than half a century, and consists of a mature syllabus and system. In 2008, the 100th year since Kuen Cheng was founded, Kuen Cheng decided to convert its enrollment from all girls to a co-ed 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 6 graduates became the first co-ed graduates of the school. In 2015, Kuen Cheng High School had been rated 5-stars as one of the Best Schools of Excellence in Malaysia by the Ministry of Education. Presently, the restructuring of the school from an all-girls school to a co-ed 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.
