Section 95: The History of Chi Sin School

In 1938, Batu Kikir Primary School was founded by the sages of Batu Kikir, Lai Tung Ming, Lee Siu Tin, Tang Lian Kwan, Siu Lin Fat, Chung Nam Kwan, and Lin Chang. At the time of its establishment, it was a simple school building with only one or two teachers and only a handful of students. Although it was a miserable business,learnings should not be discontinued, the school was able to spread its culture!

Invasion of Japan army, at first the school was forced to stop, later on reopened under intimidation and had to teach enemy text as well.

After the Restoration (1946), our school was merged with another school called Zhen Nan School and renamed chi sin Public Elementary School. In addition to this school, there was still a private Zhen Nan Middle School in the local area. The former general secretary of our school, Li Shaojun, considered that the school should be run by a group of people, and that there should be no distinction between public and private, so he asked the owner of Zhennan School, Lin Zhangjun, to merge the school into our school: thus our school became the only Chinese school in the area. At that time, the number of students reached more than a hundred, and most of them were of Chinese descent. However, after the war, there was a shortage of teachers, and our school was in a poor countryside, so it was even more difficult to find talents: there were few students and many classes, poor facilities and salaries, teachers only wanted to work for a short time period, so the school board was overwhelmed and the students' performance was low. Finally a new salary system was implemented, and the school finances was stabilized: because of the uniform salary of the teachers in the system, also, any resignation needed to be approved by the school board, there were less changes of teachers.

In 1956, in view of the fact that the rented school building was in a dilapidated condition and was in danger of falling down, and it was very close to the roadside. The Education Ministry of Negeri Sembilan had fortunately granted funds to the school to build four classrooms and a dormitory under the educational policy of subsidizing the construction of a new village, this had helpped laid the eternal foundation of the school. (The school was officially moved to its present location in January 1956 and has been in operation ever since.)

After the independence, the school board was reorganized under the New Education Act, and Yun Da Yuan, an ardent philanthropist, was elected as the chairman. Yun, with his enthusiasm for education, made many contributions to our school, and allocated large sums of money for the construction of offices, meeting rooms, dormitories, etc. He also liaised closely with the trustees and the teachers to plan the development of various aspects of school affairs; although there were many obstacles from those with bad motives, fortunately, with the sincere cooperation of the trustees and teachers, the original plan was gradually realized.

From 1995 to 2001, Mr. Shi Dan-Bei was appointed as the headmaster of the school. During this period, our chairman’s mother, Mdm. Lin Feng zhu, continuously donated to the school for many years. In addition to sponsoring the additional hardware and software,she also donated to various activity funds and academic excellence awards, contributed greatly to helping poor students and maintaining Chinese teaching in the local community.

In terms of academic affairs, for many years, Shi Shihuo and Chen Renkun, the school's principals and vice principals, have been working together with the teachers and principals to improve the quantity and quality of teaching.

In 1962, Headmaster Shi retired and headmaster Cheng Hai-Chin took over the school. The chairmanship of the school continued to be held by Yun Da Yuan. With the cooperation of Principal Cheng Hai-Chin and the board members of the Tung family, the software and hardware of Chi Sin Elementary School were upgraded one after another. The school's basketball court was also built in 1964 to benefit the students.

From 1977 to 1995, Wen-Sheng Yen was assigned as the headmaster. The position of President was held by Mr. Lin Yubiao and Mr. Chen Yonglin. During his 18 years at the helm of the school, Mr. Yen was able to upgrade the school hardware and software with the help of government grants and the help of enthusiasts. The school also received a grant from the Ministry of Education to repair the toilets.

In 2015, the number of students increased slightly under the leadership of Principal Leong Yoke Kwan. In 2018, the school, which was 85% Malay, hosted a successful Mid-Autumn Festival party with Malay parents invited to the school to participate in a lantern riddle quiz and lantern parade. This was followed by a successful Chinese New Year party in 2019, which highlighted racial harmony.

From 2019, the school has been headed by Principal Wen Xiu Juan. As the school building was outdated, the structure was damaged and the safety of the students and teachers were ar risk, our former principal, Ms. Leong Ngoc Kuan, actively applied for donations from the Lee Foundation which is a dedicated educational organization, and received RM90,000 to repair and upgrade the school building.

The number of students peaked in the 70's and 80's with over 200 students, but in the 90's, the number of Chinese students became sluggish and deteriorated, with only 8 students left.

The school has experienced three disasters that caused some of the Chinese to move away from the school, once after the 513 incident in 1969, many Chinese moved away from the town, and then two fires in the 1990s and the reorganization of the town caused some of the Chinese to move away, further reducing the number of Chinese in Batu Kikir.

When Batu Kikir was redeveloped in the 1990s, some parents moved to the surrounding residential areas, and in order not to lose students, the school's then chairman, Mr. Chan Hon Kiat, drove the students to the school himself.

In 2017, the number of students dropped to a new low, with only 27 students, of which only 2 are of Chinese origin. The school has also experienced two re-grades of teaching. The contribution of all three organizations, teachers and students is the reason why Chi Sin Chinese Primary School has been able to move away from re-grading. With the gradual increase in the number of students in recent years, this year (2021) there are only 8 Chinese students out of a total of 60 students.

Over the past 83 years, the principals and the board members of the Tung family have been working together to upgrade the school's hardware and software to benefit the students.