Ipoh World

The badge pictured above is one of a school prefect’s in Poi Lam Private School. The Chinese characters printed at the top read ‘Ipoh’, followed by ‘Poi Lam Private School’ just below. The school emblem is clearly printed in the middle of the badge and the Chinese characters for ‘School Prefect’ are written across the bottom of the badge.

In 1917, the Perak Hokkien Association began running private classes for students and subsequently, in 1925, Poi Lam School was officially established as an educational institution. With the onset of the Second World War in 1941, classes were suspended until the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. 10 years after resuming classes, Poi Lam School began offering Junior Middle Section classes and had an initial enrolment of 120 students.

The school became a National-type Secondary school in 1962 while at the same time began to run private classes catering for adults and mature students. These private classes were to form the core of Poi Lam Independent School. The following year, a separate Board of Directors was formed for the newly independent school. In the same year, Senior Middle Three classes were started.

In the subsequent years, school enrolment dropped steadily due to the abolishment of the Government Primary Six Examination, disrupting the intake of new Junior Middle One students. In 1970, the student population was reduced to a mere 75 students. Recruitment plans were drawn up in 1971 and the school staff managed to recruit 100 students that year. A committee to revive and reinvigorate Chinese independent schools was also established after a meeting was set up by the former Poi Lam school board Director involving the principals from nine other independent schools in Perak.

Thanks to the generosity of the then Dato’ Lee Loy Seng, the school acquired an 11-acre piece of land for new school premises and a school development project was launched. In 1976, the 2nd phase of the school development project was completed and Commerce and Electronic classes were started for the Senior Middle section. Enrolment continued to increase throughout the years and in 1984, with the construction of the Audio Visual Centre and 21 new classrooms, the 3rd phase of the school development project was completed. The 4th phase of this project commenced in 1989, beginning with the construction of a school hostel. In the same year Poi Lam Independent School earned the distinction of being the largest and best-equipped independent school in Perak.

Construction began on the new Science Laboratories building in July of 1996. This was also the year that the school launched its website, making it the first Chinese Independent School to do so in Perak. The Science and Vocational Building was finished at the end of 1997, marking the completion of phase 5 of the school development project. The building was officially opened on the 10th of October 1999.

Poi Lam Independent School continues to be a pioneer among Chinese Independent Schools in Perak, setting up Multimedia Computer Centers in its school and maintaining a good track record both academically and in co-curricular activities. They also formed close ties with several schools in Singapore, China and Taiwan, often receiving visits and even donations in the form of teaching material and aids from these schools. In 1993, Poi Lam Independent School became the sister school to the Chinese High School in Singapore.

For more information regarding the school, please visit their website at http://www.poilam.edu.my/.

To read more about the Perak Hokkien Association, click here.

To read more about Tan Sri Dato Seri Lee Loy Seng , click here.