Kolej Datu Patinggi Abang Haji
Abdillah
 |
| Principal |
Johara Zen |
| School type |
Public semi-boarding
school |
| Founded |
1979 |
| Location |
Kuching , Sarawak , Malaysia |
| School Motto |
Arif dan Maju : Wisdom and
Progress |
| Corporate Colour |
Green |
| Abbreviation |
KDPAHA |
Kolej Datu Patinggi Abang Haji
Abdillah is a public coeducational day and
boarding secondary school located in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
History
Kolej Datu
Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah was officially opened on 29 September 1978 by the
third Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Hussein Onn. Dubbed the 'Eton
of Borneo', the college was formerly known as
Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah Junior Science
College. Its original purpose was to serve as a
Junior College for
Form 6 students who
obtained good results in their Form 5 examination. In later years,
the college started admitting Form 1 to Form 5 students while still
keeping the
Kolej (
College) prefix.
Admission for Form 6 students was halted in 2005.
Tun Hussein Onn at the school's
opening ceremony.
The plan to build the school was granted by the Federal Government
in 1972 under the Second Malaysia Plan (RM-2). The construction was
completed in 1978, covering 8 hectares.
The college was named after
Datu Patinggi Abang Haji
Abdillah, a local politician who served under
Vyner Brooke. He was a well known patriot who
opposed the cession of Sarawak to the
British Crown in 1946.
Admission
Admission to the school is monitored and conducted by the State
Education Board. The academic requirement for admission to Form 1
is 5As or 4As + 1B in the
UPSR examination while Form
4 requires straight As or 7 As + 1B in the
PMR examination. Prior to 2005,
Form Six students were admitted based on their
SPM results.
Principals
- Datu Putit Matzen (1978-1982)
- Sukinam Domo (1983-1984)
- Tuan Haji Morshidi Ali (1985-1989)
- Tuan Haji Mohd Zain Abang Ismail (1989-1992)
- Michael Manyin (1993-1995)
- Putit bin Haji Ped (1995-2004)
- Datin Hajah Halimah bt Haji Mohd Sahari (2004-2007)
- Johara Zen (2007-now)
Symbols and traditions
The college's motto is
Arif dan Maju (Wisdom and
Progress), which is also the title of one of its two anthems. The
second anthem,
Pelajar Bestari (written by Wan Danial
Samiun Bin Wan Mohamad), was introduced during Putit bin Haji Ped's
tenure as the
Principal when
the college was declared a Smart School. However,
Pelajar
Bestari was replaced by
Hearts and Minds during Mdm.
Johara Zen's administration in 2007. In 2005, during Datin
Halimah's administration,
We Must, We Can and We will was
adopted as the college slogan.
Houses
Kolej DPAH Abdillah has four 'houses', each assigned with a
particular color (in brackets); Lions (red), Wallabies (orange),
All Blacks (black) and Springboks (green). The houses are named
after international rugby teams.
Prior to 2001, the names used were either based on the name of
local heroes or patriots; Rentap, Sharif Masahor, Rosli Dhobi and
Patinggi Ali or (as thought by the junior students) the names of
Proton (national) cars, namely Waja, Satria, Perdana and
Wira.
Students are assigned to a randomly selected house. Houses compete
against each other in the Annual Sports Event and academic
competitions like debates.
School publications
The SPEKTRA is the school's official yearbook or annual magazine
and is also the longest running school publication. The editorial
board consists of students and teachers. However, the main body of
the editorial board consists of students.
Buletin Bestari is the school's official newsletter, published by
the
Briged Bestari of Kolej Abdillah. It is unclear as to
when Briged Bestari started its publication, but it has been said
that it was first published since the school opened. For unknown
reasons the school stopped publishing Buletin Bestari in the 1990s.
The Media and Computer Club published their own newsletter,
Owl's in 2004, in an attempt to start a new official
newsletter.
In 2005, the extra curricular adviser changed the name and
structure of the Media and Computer Club to
Briged
Bestari, which in result replaced
Owl's with the
reborn Buletin Bestari. The Buletin Bestari was republished in the
same year.
Other publications include newsletters published by the school's
own Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP) companies, such as the
From the Eyes of Collegians newsletter.
Extracurricular achievements
The school
has been competitive in the Young Entrepreneurs Program, and it won
several national awards in 2002 and 2005, defeating other schools
in Malaysia, two of which are MCKK
and Victoria
Institution.
Debate and public speaking
Kolej DPAH Abdillah produced great orators in 1980, winning the
Chief Minister's Cup Malay Debate Championship. The person
in-charge of the
Bahasa Malaysia
debate team, (Cikgu Bhaludin Salleh) has resigned and opened a well
known tuition centre named Pusat Bimbingan Karya.
It was the year 2006 when Kolej DPAH Abdillah won the Sarawak
Bahasa Melayu Parliamentary Style Debate. Under the guidance of
Cikgu Zaidi and Cikgu Maimunah, the team placed second in the
National (Borneo) Bahasa Melayu Parliamentary Style Debate which
was held in Labuan.
In 2005, Kolej DPAH Abdillah won the State-level
Royal Cup
Speech Competition and its representative, Junnyaruin Barat
was selected to represent Sarawak in national-level
competition.
In 2008,
the English Debate team under the guidance of Madam Maria Tan
trained with the Debate Team of UiTM Sarawak.
UiTM Sarawak was the
Borneo
Cup Debating Tournament champion for 2006 and 2008,
as well as one of the finalists in the Vice-Chancellor Cup Debating
Championship in 2007 which was held in Shah Alam
. The Kolej Abdillah-UiTM collaboration was
funded by the Parents-Teachers Association. The representatives for
the year's English Debate was Nalisha Laila [first speaker], Nor
Shafiqah [second speaker], Aliff Farhan [third speaker] and Ajibah
[reserve].
Young Entrepreneurs Programme
The Young Entrepreneurs Programme(YEP) of Kolej DPAH Abdillah is
probably the most acclaimed club in Kolej Abdillah.
It has represented the
state of Sarawak several
times.
List of YEP companies
- 2002: College Hillz Sdn Bhd
- 2003: Abdillahz Empire Sdn Bhd
- 2004: Enigma 42 Sdn Bhd
- 2006: F.L.A.M.E. Sdn. Bhd.
List of YEP achievements
- 2003 - Abdillahz Empire Sdn. Bhd
State LevelThird place in Report Presentation
- 2004 - Enigma 42 Sdn. Bhd
State Level
- Best Company Award
- Best Report Presentation
- Best General Manager Award - Syed Nizamuddin bin Sayed
Khassim
- Best Administrative Manager Award - Noor Afreeda binti
Nawawi
- Best Operational Manage Award - Nor Azwani Adenan
- Best Marketing Manager Award - Normalyana Samsudin
- Best Finance Manager Award - Abdul Hafeedzil Iqbal bin
Wajidi
National Level
- Runner-up in Report Presentation Category
Taekwondo
Chong Zhia Howe has been representing Malaysia in international
Taekwondo tournaments ever since he was a
student at the school. As of 2005, the Kolej Abdillah has two
Taekwondo clubs; the ITF (International Taekwondo Federation) and
WTF (World Taekwondo Federation). Both Taekwondo Clubs would
collaborate with the school's other
martial
arts clubs to do martial arts performances on annual sporting
events.
Rugby
Rugby was first introduced to the school in 1997. The rugby team
was supervised by Cikgu Zulkarnain and trained by Coach Pat, who
led the team to victory in the Kuching Division tournament in the
same year. After the sole win, it was rumored that the players
began spending more time in their studies, which resulted in the
club's demise in 1999. However, according to trusted sources, the
club's downfall was the result of Coach Pat leaving the team to
further his studies and leaving no successor to head the
team.
The school's rugby team, now known as the 'College Titans', was
re-established in 2003 and its players were trained by rugby player
and Form 6 student Azfar Zubri, who once captained the Kuala Lumpur
Rugby Team. The College Titans became stronger each year and this
in return sparked the other students' interest in the sport. Some
of the Titans' players were even selected to play for the Kuching
division and state teams. The College Titans is now one of the big
names in secondary school rugby, along with the infamous SHOAW
Rugby Team.
Kolej DPAH Abdillah once had a competitive dance group which had won
several competitions and was described as one of the best dance teams in Kuching. The
group was officially started in 1997 and it took part in the
Dance Competition
organized by the
Sarawak
Cultural Village in the same year. For its first appearance in
the competition, the group was given the
Kumpulan
Harapan title and brought home
Piala
Harapan, which was quite a confidence boost for them as
newcomers. The group then immediately became a favorite and
received good critics from the judges of the competition. Since
then, there were many invitations for the group to perform in big
events around Kuching. In the same year, they won a
Dance Competition organized by the Kuching
North City Hall (DBKU) on the Kuching City Day (first place for
school category - cultural performance). This achievement led the
group to practice harder the next year and it was paid off when the
group took first place in the Sarawak Cultural Village School Dance
Competition. They also won DBKU's Dance Competition in the same
year. In 1999, the senior dancers graduated from school and that
left the new dancers struggling to keep their reign as a champions
but it proved to be a challenging year for the fresh faces. The
newly recruited dancers only managed to take the second or third
place in most of the competitions they took part in. In 2000, the
group once again recruited new dancers. However, due to problems
such as instructor replacements and irregular schedule changes, the
group was not able to perform at their best and failed to bag any
prizes in any competitions. It was a total meltdown for them but
the Kolej DPAH Abdillah Dance Group (now also known as the Kassorga
Dancers) had the best dancers in their time. Kolej DPAH Abdillah
Dance Group was labelled a 'one hit wonder team' then.
- Prior to 2004, the school anthem was played by a student on a
piano in every assembly. However, the
tradition stopped in 2004. An attempt to revive the tradition by
Datin Hajah Halimah was met with failure.
- Madam Johara Zen changed the names for the classes to the names
of precious minerals; Indigo(indigo) to Amethyst, Merah(red) Ruby,
Biru(blue) to Sapphire, Kuning(yellow) to Topaz, Hijau(green) to
Emerald, Jingga(orange) to Amber, Putih(white) to Diamond etc. in
2007.
- The Pelajar Bestari song was replaced with the
government-created song; Hearts and Minds by Madam Johara
Zen.-->
For full article on Brethren of Datu Abdillah, click
here.
Notable alumni
- Datu Misnu bin Hj Taha; Director of Jabatan Agama Islam Sarawak
(JAIS)
- Chong Zhia Howe; represents Malaysia in international Taekwondo
tournaments.
- Mr. Nikk Adam Abdillah Kipalli; Public and International
Relations EXCO of UNIMAS Student
Representative Council.
- Mr. Badri Sahmat, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera
Bersatu (PBB), N7 Constituency Youth
Chief.
- Aini Yusof, Sacofa Sdn Bhd
- Dr Kamarul Hisham Kamarudin, Specialist, Putrajaya Dental
Clinic
- Dr Muadzam Mohamad, Hospital Sibu
Notable educators
- Datuk
Putit Matzen; first Principal, Chairman of Sarawak Islamic
Council.
- YB Michael Manyin; the fifth Principal, joined politics after
leaving, an assemblyman for Tebedu constituency.
- Mr. Isai Raja; Arts and Visual teacher, was once a player of
Sarawak FA.
- Mr Bhaludin Haji Salleh; a former Malay Language teacher of
Kolej Abdillah, established a private tuition centre franchise upon
resigning. The private tuition centre; Pusat Bimbingan Karya,
specializes in Malay Language studies for primary and secondary
school students.
In the media
Kolej DPAH Abdillah's extra-large
Jalur
Gemilang was featured in Malaysia's media in year 2002 and
2003.
[388677]
References
1. "Reminiscing the Glorious Past; Kolej Abdillah since 1979" -
OWLs, 10 May 2007
2. Spektra Editorial (2005)
Spektra 2005
3. Spektra Editorial (2004)
Spektra 2004
4. Spektra Editorial (2003)
Spektra 2003
5. Spektra Editorial (2002)
Spektra 2002
6. Spektra Editorial (2001)
Spektra 2001
7. Spektra Editorial (2000)
Spektra 2000
8. Spektra Editorial (1999)
Spektra 1999
9. Spektra Editorial (1998)
Spektra 1998
10. Spektra Editorial (1997)
Spektra 1997
11. Spektra Editorial (1996)
Spektra 1996
12. Spektra Editorial (1995)
Spektra 1995
13. Spektra Editorial (1994)
Spektra 1994
14. Spektra Editorial (1980)
Spektra 1980
External links
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