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Yuk Choy Secondary School (Perak Chinese Assembly Hall), Ipoh
The name Yuk Choy means to educate students to be talented.
Yuk Choy was a public Primary Chinese School, founded in Hugh Low Street in January 1908 by Hoo Tse Chong and friends, from Penang. He also established the Chong Hwa School in Penang four years earlier, before moving to Perak to get involved in mining. At first the school was for Upper Primary students, the pupils coming from the Lower Primary schools around the Ipoh district.
In 1914 the school was closed and reopened as a new school under a Board of Governors selected from the local Chinese community. However the new school then closed temporarily in 1915 due to lack of funds, reopening in August of that year, again for Upper primary students.
In 1924, a row of houses was purchased which provided classrooms for Secondary education to Junior Middle Three level. This was the first Chinese school to offer secondary education and was thus renamed Yuk Choy Primary / Secondary School. 1936 saw the introduction of Teachers Training classes and in 1940 the school expanded into Upper Secondary level, again the first to do so locally.
During the 1930s and the recession, the school was desperately short of funds and to avoid terminating it, Towkay Leong Sin Nam became a Director and ensured they were funded.
During the Japanese occupation the school functioned as a transit camp for Japanese soldiers, reopening its doors to students on 1st November 1945.
In 1948, the secondary school moved to the Perak Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Kangsar Road, leaving the Hugh Low street premises purely for primary education. The main building (shown centre) was originally the Chinese Assembly Hall with wings on each side (at both first and second storey) as shown, forming grandstand seating to view the sports taking place on the field. This was the only sports field and grandstand in Ipoh at the time.
Subsequently, classrooms were built behind, but adjoining the grandstand, the north block in 1952 and this was followed by the South block in 1960. The first of these classrooms can be seen each side of the main building. Additional classrooms continued to be built along the back of the grandstand and eventually further classrooms to the left and right sides of the playing field. The obelisk shaped structure records the founding of the building.
In 1963, the school was divided into a government aided school (Primary and Secondary) and Yuk Choy (Suwa) Independent High School, a Private School which moved to Jelapang, near Ipoh in 1985.
For more information please contact the Kuala Kangsar Road campus where they have a detailed history from which the above was summarised.
To read more about Towkay Leong Sin Nam JP OBE click here.
To read more about the Perak Chinese Assembly Hall, Ipoh, click here.