History of the school

 

• Angel Gabriel

REV FATHER WILLIAM ELTON

A History of the origin and growth of St. Patrick’s Secondary School, Tawau  1917 TO 1954 DR KM GEORGE RECORDS HERE the story of the school to 1954, some of which had been recorded earlier by the Rev. Walter Newmarch.

      The first mention of a possible Church of England work in Tawau is this entry from the diary of the Church’s first British North Borneo priest Father William Elton, who had been working in Sandakan since 1888: On 10th December 1896, Mr. Elton went down to Tawao (now Tawau) with a view to choose a mission site and open a school there. Mr. A. R. Dunlop the Resident pointed out the various available sites and on his return to Sandakan wrote to Mr. Cowie the Managing Director of the Company to ask if the Court of Directors would grant a $30 a month for a master’s salary. The Court replied that they were unable to do so, and so no mission was started at Tawau much to the disappointment of the inhabitants.  

     The Church of England Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) mission had a school functioning by March 1917 on the formerly chosen site on Dunlop Street near the Kuhara Road corner. St Patrick’s Primary School had as its first schoolmaster Hiew Nyuk Yin, the catechist. According to The State Annual Report on Education in 1917, it was a mixed school in the Chinese medium with 36 boys and 10 girls on the rolls. Mr. Hiew worked as a teacher for two years. In 1919, Lim Nyet Fun took charge of the school and ran an English and Chinese Primary School, assisted by a catechist, Mr. Chin Hen Tat.In 1927, Rev. Vun Nen Vun was appointed priest in Tawau, and he ran the school single-handedly for two years; after which he was assisted by another teacher. Rev. Chin Phu Yin who took over the school in 1931 and ran it for two years.

   St. Patrick’s Secondary School was started by Rev. W. Newmarch in 1954 in the St. Patrick’s Church compound with only 90 students. In 1964, the secondary was moved to  Jalan Kuhara with 930 students. In 2004 the number of students rose to a total of 1424  in 38 classes from bridge classes to Form 5.St Patrick’s has achieved the status of a premier school with excellent academic results year after year. Regardless of changes in education policies and the limited resources available over the years, the standard has not diminished.

      From 1917 to 1965, the school was known as ‘St Patrick’s School’. Since 1966, that school has become two, a primary and a secondary school. The school gone through different stages in the development  under the leadership of different principals. Each one brought with them their unique strengths and vision which they imparted to the school. Since 1917, St Patrick’s has continued to play an important role in the field of education not only in Tawau but at the state and national level. Its students have demonstrated a ‘leadership through service’ role as church administrators, politicians, civil servants, business people and professionals.

      AUSTRALIAN MISSIONARIES, 1954 TO 1959MR. JAMES POWER STARTS HIS ACCOUNT OF THIS PERIOD with the arrival of the Rev. Walter and Mrs. Camille Newmarch : The Newmarches were sent by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) of Australia to Tawau in 1954. Mr. Newmarch had matriculated before serving in Borneo at Balikpapan and Tarakan at the end of the Second World War.  The experience that changed the course of his life in Easter 1945 was when some Balikpapan people asked what Easter was about and he had the chance to explain. Their need made him decide to come back and work for God in Borneo if he could. After studying for the Licentiate of Theology at Moore Theological College Sydney and his Bachelor of Arts degree at Sydney University, he realized this dream. He became the school principal, along with being priest-in-charge of Tawau parish, and Mr. David Wong worked as headmaster of the Chinese Middle School. In1955, an English secondary 1 class was started and in 1956 secondary 2.   

MR JAMES POWER

      The school badge was conceptualized by Mr. Newmarch. Amidst his many responsibilities in his new parish work and his visits as far a field as Lahad Datu and Semporna, Mr. Newmarch found his time cut out in dealing with the many needs of the school. Late that year, the colonial education authorities inspected the school and told the principal he must get trained teachers for the school before the beginning of 1957 or the school would be closed. This threat alarmed Mr. Newmarch who wrote about the matter to his wife who had gone to Kuala Lumpur early in 1956 to study the Hakka Chinese dialect.  to serve as missionaries, we applied to CMS to go to Tawau.

       Mr. Newmarch took chapel services at times from 1957 to his leaving Tawau in 1968 and was very much involved in the spiritual life of the students. (After leaving Sabah, Mr. Newmarch taught for some years at The King’s School Parramatta NSW, and worked as archdeacon in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney until his retirement, after which he spent some time relieving clergy in Sabah for short periods.)Early in our time, we introduced the House system for competition in all aspects of school life. I chose the names of four local rivers as the names of the Houses – Kalabakan, Balung, Merotai and Serudong.

REV VUN NEN VUN

     Rev. Vun Nen Vun was the first priest of the Anglican Church in Tawau. As he had been a teacher in St James School in Kudat before entering the ministry of the church, he showed a keen interest in the school. The church, which was erected in 1929, largely through his efforts, was also used as a classroom for many years. When he moved to other work in 1931, there was no one to take his place in Tawau. St Patrick’s was without a resident minister until 20 years later, when he returned to the scene of his early work. Rev. Vun Nen Vun, first priest-in-charge, St. Patrick’s Church Tawau. He was headmaster of St. Patrick’s School Tawau from 1927 to 1931 and from 1951 to 1954. His faithful work in enabling the school to survive through a difficult period is greatly appreciated.The school was temporarily closed down prior to June 1932.

      From 1933 to 1941, the school was run by catechist Ngui Yin Liong, and by Lim Piang Kong. It was still a primary school and had three wooden and atap buildings for classrooms.During the period of the Japanese Occupation, the school had to be closed, both church and school buildings being used by the Japanese for manufacturing salt. Owing to this, the planks of the building became rotten. When the Japanese left, the roof was leaking badly. Some planks had been removed and no furniture was in existence.

The school was re-established only in 1951 when Rev. Vun Nen Vun was again sent to Tawau. He found St Patrick’s operating as Yuk Chin and, after negotiations, Yuk Chin moved to a site in ice-box and Mr. Vun opened the school in English and Chinese.  Those who had been deprived of education during the war wanted to join the school and over-age pupils were a major problem in the ensuing years.

   Mr. David Wong came as Headmaster in 1952 and he set up a Chinese Junior Middle School, which resulted in 126 pupils qualifying in 1955.Although he moved away again in 1954, Mr. Vun had a permanent link with Tawau through members of his family. One of his children. Madam Mary Vun, who had been educated at St Mary’s School in Kuching, joined the staff of St Patrick’s in 1951. She said that students paid $7 a month and she was paid $10 a month. She served the school for over three decades, teaching hundreds of students in Primary 1 until her retirement in 1990.

   Mr. Vun retired from the ministry in 1962 and lived for a time in Labuan. In May 1962 he returned to Tawau, but his health deteriorated rapidly and he died on 30th June. At the funeral service in the church the following day, the school was represented by the senior classes. A group of senior boys carried the coffin from the church and also stood around the grave as the body of Mr. Vun was laid to rest.St Patrick’s school and church are named after Saint Patrick (c.389-461), the patron saint of Ireland. The Irish celebrate his day on 17 March. The most familiar legend about St Patrick is his use of the shamrock to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity, and his driving the snakes from Ireland. The shamrock is a plant with three leaflets that are used as the Irish emblem. The school has celebrated its patronal festival on 17 March when students have sung the famous song ‘St. Patrick’s Breastplate’ at  important functions.

Other former Principals of the school.

Mdm Lim Koon Chin

Mdm Elizabeth Au Yong

Datuk Mary Yap

 

From A History of the origin and growth of St. Patrick’s Secondary School, Tawau 1st Edition July 2007