First catholic private schools in Kuching

KUCHING — The Archdiocese of Kuching witnessed the historic launching of the St Joseph’s Private Primary and Secondary Schools (SJPPSS) on the 9 April. These will be the very first catholic private schools in Kuching initiated by ex-Josephians and Yayasan Lasallian Kuching with the blessing of Archbishop John Ha.

The new private schools promise to provide a holistic education to enrich the lives of her students and creating and providing opportunities in a conducive environment to enable every child to realize his/her potential in the spirit of the school motto “Ora Et Labora” (Pray and Work). The church draws on the vast experience of the Jesuits and the sisters of St Francis in the field of education. The secondary school will be managed by the Jesuits, with a Jesuit priest as Principal; while a Franciscan nun will head the primary school. They will be ably assisted by a team of trained and experienced teachers specially selected to set up the school.

While SJPPSS follow the national curriculum, KBSR and KBSM, where Bahasa Malaysia is the main medium of instruction, the learning and usage of English will be emphasised and actively encouraged. Since religious studies are important in the formation of a wholesome child, they will be a part of the curriculum.

St Joseph’s is a single-session co-ed school, with lessons from 7.30 am to 3.30 pm, followed by extra-curricular activities. Development of soft skills such as the creative arts, music, drama and dance, media awareness programmes and the nurturing of interpersonal skills and leadership qualities will be all provided in the holistic education.

To help accomplish these aims and objectives, plans are underway to construct a modern campus at a central location, featuring a chapel, a language laboratory, and a well-equipped library among others, with state-of-the-art facilities. This new complex is projected to be in full operation by 2013. In the meantime classes will be temporarily housed at the present St Joseph’s Parish Tuition Centre.

Although these new private schools are fee paying, they are non profit endeavours and all revenues collected applied to running and maintenance costs.

The philosophy of the new schools is rooted in time honoured values. It views education as ideally helping every child to develop a spirit of love, service and respect; to fully respond to his/her God given potential to learn and excel in all undertakings. Among other objectives, SJPPSS strive to help students fully develop their potential irrespective of race, gender or socio-economic status, foster spiritual and moral values through religious and moral education, and inculcate self-discipline, mutual respect, goodwill and friendship, responsibility and a sense of service towards society.

In his message in the launching multimedia presentation video His Grace Archbishop John Ha said: “Education is an integral part of the Church’s mission. It is a fact that mission schools have greatly contributed to education in Sarawak. Now that education is available to the masses and the needs of our times are increasingly challenging, a group of ex-Josephians have initiated steps to take education to a different level. A licence to start St Joseph’s Private School was granted in August last year. This Catholic Private School is committed to providing education beyond the ordinary by developing the God-given potentials of every student to the full. For this, they have my total support. May God bless this school as her students ‘pray and work.’”

Registration for admission to Primary One and Form One in 2012 is now open. For further enquiry please contact 010 9747098 for pertinent details.

Stella Chin

Forms and fees are available for download.
Right click on the links and select “Save Target as” (on Internet Explorer) or “Save Link As” (on Mozilla Firefox).

- Today's Catholic