15 Boarding Schools to Be Built
PUTRAJAYA: Another 15 boarding schools will be built by 2010, offering an additional 2,250 places for students entering these prestigious institutions.
These schools will increase enrolment by 37 per cent. At present, 6,030 places are offered each year at the 54 boarding schools.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the current enrolment in these schools was just 10 per cent of all applications received.
The number of applications increases each year, with 89,551 in 2005, 91,260 last year, and 92,908 this year.
Non-Bumiputera students co-mprise 10 per cent of the current enrolment.
The 15 schools will comprise of Sekolah Menengah Sains and fully integrated residential schools.
Three schools are already being built in Tapah and Bagan Datoh in Perak, and Rembau in Negri Sembilan. The rest will be completed between 2009 and 2010.
“We want residential schools to produce future leaders for the country,” Hishammuddin said at a press conference after giving awards to the winners of the 34th Prime Minister’s Trophy Debate Competition here.
“Residential schools are able to develop excellence in their students in co-curricular activities in a way that day schools cannot because they have all the infrastructure and time,” he said.
Earlier, Hishammuddin presented prizes to the debaters who tackled the topic “Biotechnology as a Catalyst for National Progress” in the Bahasa Malaysia debate and “This House Believes that Online Censorship is a Necessary Evil” in the English category.
The Bahasa Malaysia trophy was won by Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Integrasi Gombak, which took the opposing stand.
The school’s Form 5 student Muhammad Kasyful Azim Shahlan won the award for Best Debater in Bahasa Malaysia.
The English trophy was won by Sekolah Menengah Sains Shah Alam and Best Debater in English was won by Muhamad Zuhri Kmil Sapii from Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh.
The Prime Minister’s Trophy was started in 1974 with the first competition held at the Malay College, Kuala Kangsar.
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