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| The Malay College Kuala Kangsar | |
|---|---|
Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar كوليج ملايو كوالا كڠسر | |
 | |
| Location | |
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Jalan Tun Razak , | |
| Information | |
| Type | Full boarding school Governmentcluster school High performance school |
| Motto | Latin:Fiat Sapientia Virtus (Manliness Through Wisdom) |
| Established | 2 January 1905; 121 years ago (1905-01-02)[1] |
| Founders | Sultan Idris of Perak Sultan Sulaiman of Selangor Sultan Ahmad of Pahang Yamtuan Muhammad Shah of Negeri Sembilan[2] |
| Royal Patron | Conference of Rulers Sultan Nazrin Shah of Perak |
| Chairman | TunMohammed Hanif Omar |
| Headmaster | Aimin Fadhlee Mahmud Zuhodi |
| Grades | Form 1 – Form 5 Year 1 & 2 of IB Diploma Programme |
| Gender | Male |
| Enrolment | 650 |
| Language | Malay,English,Japanese,Chinese,Arabic,French |
| Houses | Idris, Sulaiman, Mohd Shah, Ahmad |
| Colours | White, Red, Yellow, Black |
| Accreditation | Ministry of Education International Baccalaureate Organisation[3] |
| Yearbook | The Malay College Magazine |
| Affiliations | Sekolah Berasrama Penuh GALES Trust School[4] SBP School of Global Excellence[5] |
| Alumni | The Malay College Old Boys Association |
| Website | www |
 | |
The Malay College Kuala Kangsar (abbreviatedMCKK;Malay:Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar;Jawi:كوليج ملايو كوالا كڠسر) is aresidential school inMalaysia. It is an all-boys[6] and all-Malay school in the royal town ofKuala Kangsar,Perak. It is sometimes dubbed "theEton College of the East".[7]
The Malay College Kuala Kangsar was awarded theCluster School of Excellence title by theMinistry of Education (Malaysia). Since 2010, the school was awarded theSekolah Berprestasi Tinggi or High Performance School[8] title, a title awarded to Malaysian top schools. The school has been selected as anInternational Baccalaureate (IB) World School for Diploma Programme since 2011 and Middle Years Programme since 2016. The Malay College Kuala Kangsar offers the national curriculum (SPM) while implementing IB curriculum standards. MCKK is also a member of an international organisation of best secondary schools in the world calledGlobal Alliance of Leading-Edge Schools led byRaffles Institution of Singapore. About 10% of current students are with public & private scholarships, such asBank Negara Malaysia,Telekom Malaysia, Yayasan Peneraju Pendidikan Bumiputera and many more.
The school is the only boarding school in Malaysia that are under royal patronage.[9] The school's patron is theConference of Rulers. As an institution under the royal patronage of Conference of Rulers, the school receives royal visits from theYang di-Pertuan Agong, King of Malaysia every five years and every year from theSultan of Perak as school's board chairman. The board members are also appointed by the Conference.
The school specialises in rugby, basketball, hockey, debate, robotics and most prominently, leadership.[10]
The Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) is the first fully residential school in Malaysia.[11] Established on 2 January 1905, it was originally known as theMalay Residential School of Kuala Kangsar, also then formerly known asMaktab Melayu Kuala Kangsar in Malay.[1]
The school was the brainchild ofR J Wilkinson, inspector of schools for the Federated Malay States. In a letter to the resident-general dated 24 February 1904 he wrote about "establishing at a suitable locality in the F.M.S., a special residential school for the education of Malays of good family and for the training of Malay boys for admission to certain branches of Government service".
William Hargreaves, headmaster ofPenang Free School, was appointed as the first headmaster to lead the establishment of the school with 40 pioneering students. Since 1965, the Malay College has been led by Malay headmasters.
As it was founded to educate the Malay elite, being royal children and the sons of Malay nobility ofFederation of Malaya,Brunei andSarawak,[12] few of its early students were from commoner families. However, duringTun Abdul Razak Hussein's tenure asMinister of Education in 1947, as a result of risingMalay nationalism, he democratised the intake. This is mainly because of his experience as an alumnus there, where he found out the aristocrats that gained admittance to this college were mainly below par compared to their less-privileged peers inVictoria Institution andRaffles Institution. Their status as aristocrats had caused them not to be independent and to have no willingness to strive for a better future.[13] Today, only selected Malay boys aged 13 to 17 from around Malaysia are educated there.
Some of the well known teachers includePendeta Za'Ba andAnthony Burgess.[14]
TheStraits Echo on 15 April 1905 reported that a few boys were placed in cozy dormitories in Hargreaves’ rented house, while the others were stabled in small houses formerly occupied by the Malayan Railway clerks. The second half of the school, conducted by Mr. Vanrenen was held in a fowl house. There were 40 boys in the first intake.
The sanction for the building of a permanent school became official on 23 December 1905; by 1 May 1909, the Big School was first brought into use. On Saturday, 11 December 1909, the Big School was officially opened by the Sultan of Perak, and the auspicious date also marked the change in the name of the school from the Malay Residential School of Kuala Kangsar to the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.[15]
The change seems to have seen greater emphasis on the original aim of MCKK. A report from 1910 said: "From this school the Government have great hopes that the sons of Malays of the Raja and higher class will be educated and trained on the lines of anEnglish Public School and be fitted to take a share in the Government of their Country."
Since its inception, more than 5,000 boys (and 2 girls)[16] have entered the gates of MCKK. The first The Malay College Magazine was published in 1939. The compulsory white uniforms were introduced in 1949, before that, the students wore Malay dress. The MCKKsamping designed and woven in Terengganu consisting of black, yellow and red (with resultant overlapping colours) was introduced in 1939 to be worn with whiteBaju Melayu and blacksongkok was made the optional Malay uniform. It was only made compulsory in 1959 by the last British Headmaster, NJ Ryan.
The Headmaster changed the names of the 3 Houses (Rookies, Heads and Wheelies) to the four names of FMS Rulers in 1905. He was the same Headmaster who personally raised theUMNO flag on Federation Day, 01/02/1948, when the MCKK boys assembled to celebrate the demise of theMalayan Union and to sing the "new Malay National Anthem" as described by Hashim Sam Latiff. MCKK adopted (and perhaps adapt) that tune to be the MCKK Anthem using the words in the "Ode to the MCKK" penned by teacher-cum-poet/writer/composer Anthony Burgess. His words, turned into lyrics for the anthem, manifests the meaning ofFiat Sapientia Virtus.
In October 1989,the Queen, Elizabeth II andPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited the school.[17]
In 2004, the college was placed under purview of the rulers with then Crown Prince of Perak,Raja Dr Nazrin Shah appointed as board chairman.[18]
The college celebrated its centenary on 26 March 2005, attended by dignitaries, old boys, and townspeople. TheYang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia attended the event, along with the royal rulers of the states ofPerak,Selangor andNegeri Sembilan as well as the governor ofMalacca. The college were also proclaimed as the Heritage Institution of Culture and Country.[19]
On 10 June 2006, EmperorAkihito and EmpressMichiko of Japan visited the school. The monarchs had promised to visit the school in the 1990s.[20]
Since 30 May 2007, the Malaysian Ministry of Education has recognised MCKK as a cluster school.
In 2010, the school have been selected to be among the first High Performance Schools while in 2013, the Prep School celebrated its centenary.[21]
MCKK has also hosted two international events, which are The Malay College Youth Development Summit[22] since 2008 until now, andThe Malay College Rugby Premier Sevens since 2011.[23] Both events consist of international schools across the globe such as Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand getting together with premier schools from India, South Korea, South Africa and Australia.
The most recognisable feature of the school is the Big School (built in 1909), a building with pseudoGreco-Roman architecture fronted by arugby field. The school is built to accommodate 100 students initially, but in 1910, there were 139 boys in the School Register, 124 of them boarders. Thus, the planning for the construction of the Preparatory School was considered and it was referred to as theSekolah Kechil. The block was completed by 1913 when it took in its first boarders. It was then referred to as the Prep School. It admitted boys who had completed Standard 4 and were being "prepared" for secondary school boarding experience by completing their Standard 5 and Form Remove at the Prep School.[24] In 1955, the West and East Wing, as well as the administration block and Clock Tower were added. The administrative block (New School) was opened byHigh Commissioner for theFederation of Malaya,Donald MacGillivray, in 1955. The West and the East Wing, with the original Big School, make up what is now called the Big School. Dorms 1-6 are located in the East Wing, 7–16 in the Overfloor and 17–22 in the West Wing. Two more hostel blocks, the Pavilion and New Hostel were built in 1963 and 1972 respectively; the latter houses second formers. Another prominent feature of the school is the Big Tree, a rain tree (Samanea saman) in front of the East Wing that is said to be as old as the original Big School itself.
The college ground is the only place in Asia where anEton Fives court is found. The court is located on the south side of the Big School, nearby the IB World School campus. With the introduction of squash in 1938, Eton Fives began to lose popularity at the school until it was not played at all. Sincea trip in August 2014 by the top UK coach Anthony Theodossi and his assistant, the game's popularity has grown and more students are now playing again. Since then, the students have competed in The Schools National Championships, United Kingdom atHighgate School,Eton College andShrewsbury School.
The school is currently the best rugby school team in the nation.[25] Nicknamed "MCKK All Blacks" after theNew Zealand national team for its all black strip, they even perform thehaka before matches.[citation needed] Traditionally, it has held match series against theVajiravudh College of Thailand since 1960. In odd-numbered years, the match is held in Kuala Kangsar. In even-numbered years, it is held in Bangkok.[citation needed] In addition to this, MCKK competes with its prominent rivals every year in a multi-games carnival.
The school basketball team is called "MCKK Cagers" and wonPiala Hamdan Tahir, the boarding-schools basketball championship, 20 times since 1977, the most in Malaysian history.[26][27] MCKK debate teams have wonPiala Perdana Menteri, the boarding-schools national debate, six times for Malay category and four times for English category.
MCKK has over the years established academic and sports rivalries with several premier schools, for example,Royal Military College,Victoria Institution, both in the capital Kuala Lumpur,King Edward VII School of Taiping,Sekolah Alam Shah in Putrajaya, and its neighbour,Clifford Secondary School. Notably, the most prominent rival isSekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Ipoh, which is one of the oldest Malay boarding school in Perak along with the MCKK.
Unlike other schools in Malaysia, co-curricular activities at the College are usually conducted every Tuesday. There are two types of co-curricular activities which are Club & Societies and Uniformed Bodies. The students wear their uniformed body attire on this day. The uniformed bodies that are present in the school are The Malay College Marching Band,Army Cadet Corps,Red Crescent Society,Scout Troops,Fire Brigade Cadet andMalaysia Youth Cadet Corps. Club & Societies at the college come and go depending on the interests of the teachers and boys at the college at the time, but some have been around for a long period. Some of the Clubs & Societies that are currently in existence include: Debate, History, French Language, English Language, Malay Language, Innovation, Robotics, and more.
Thealumni association of MCKK is known as the Malay College Old Boys' Association (MCOBA) and it was established in 1929. In 2009, the association enrolled its first non-Malay member, Liew Yong Choon.[28] The alumni association is based in a dilapidated building called "Penthouse" of the MCOBA building on Jalan Syed Putra,Kuala Lumpur.
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To this date, sevenYang di-Pertuan Agong out of seventeen that have ascended the throne were its alumni, including aLord President of the Supreme Court and aSultan of Brunei. Out of the four states that haveYang di-Pertua Negeri, two states have had at least one alumnus reside in office. The father ofMalay nationalism and the founder ofMalaysia's largest party is also an alumnus. TwoPrime Ministers received their education in the college. The college also has produced twoSpeakers of the Dewan Rakyat. The college's Old Boys also showed their presence in economy, education, law, armed forces and art.[29]
The novelist and composerAnthony Burgess (1917–93), author ofThe Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy, was a master at MCKK. He taught English and history and was housemaster at King's Pavilion, between 1956 and 1957, during the headmastership of J.D.R. "Jimmy" Howell. According to Burgess'This Man & Music, he wrote some music there under the influence of the country, notablySinfoni Melayu for orchestra and brass band, which included cries ofMerdeka (independence) from the audience. No score of any, however, has been delivered to posterity.[30] The "Ode: Celebration for a Malay College", Burgess had written for the college's 50th anniversary in 1955, "was swiftly expunged from the school's choral repertoire", when "within months ... he had to leave the school after falling out with the headmaster, JD Howell. The following year Burgess published his first novel,Time for a Tiger. A thinly veiled account of his time at Kuala Kangsar, it so cruelly caricatured Howell and his colleagues that, as Burgess recalled in his autobiography, some of those who deemed themselves traduced 'sought advice about libel' from a local lawyer. The verses of the Ode have survived but not Burgess' original melody.[31]
The college alumni were also noted as being influential in bringing thepunk music into Malaysia.[32]
| From | To | Headmasters |
|---|---|---|
| 1905 | 1916 | William Hargreaves |
| 1917 | 1919 | J.O. May |
| 1920 | 1923 | L.A.S. Jermyn |
| 1923 | 1938 | C. Bazell |
| 1938 | 1949 | H.R. Carey |
| 1950 | 1953 | K.D. Luke |
| 1953 | 1958 | J.D.R. Howell |
| 1958 | 1960 | P.G. Haig |
| 1960 | 1965 | Dato' N.J. Ryan |
| 1965 | 1968 | Dato' Abdul Aziz Ismail |
| 1969 | 1971 | Dato' Syed Abu Bakar Barakbah |
| 1971 | 1973 | Dato' Mohd. Ghazali Hj. Hanafiah |
| 1973 | 1975 | Nordin Nasir |
| 1975 | 1977 | Dato' Abdul Rahman Mohd Ali |
| 1977 | 1982 | Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Hamzah |
| 1982 | 1984 | Syed Alwi Syed Aljunid |
| 1985 | 1987 | Zainal Abidin Hj. Ahmad |
| 1987 | 1992 | Dato' Rashdi Ramlan |
| 1992 | 1994 | Dato' Hj. Hassan Hashim |
| 1994 | 1999 | Datuk Hj. Baharom Kamari |
| 1999 | 2004 | Tan Sri Dato' Hj. Alimuddin Hj. Mohd Dom |
| 2004 | 2009 | Dato' Hj. Mohd Rauhi Isa |
| 2010 | 2020 | Anand Baharuddin |
| 2020 | 2025 | Mohd Shahadan Abdul Rahman |
| 2025 | Present | Aimin Fadhlee Mahmud Zuhodi |
4°46′34″N100°56′17″E / 4.7761222222222°N 100.93816944444°E /4.7761222222222; 100.93816944444
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