Birth Of St Paul's School in Beaufort, Sabah

The beginning of St Paul's Primary and Secondary School is closely associated with the establishment of the Anglican Church in Beaufort. St Paul's Church was born on Jan 5th 1941. The then visiting priest from Jesselton (KK) was Rev Collier who was arrested by the Japanese Military Govt in May 1942 when the Japanese occupied Beaufort.

The Kok Family's association with St Paul's Primary and Secondary School began even before 1941 and has run into generations since then.

It began with the late Rev Canon Kok Yu Kong, a teacher first of All Saints and later of Kung Ming Chinese School in Beaufort prior to 1941.,no church existed in Beaufort except for a small group of Christians meeting in a home for songs and prayers under Rev Kok.

After 2nd world war, there was talk of building a new Church building to replace the old pre-war temporary building. Anglican priests from Jesselton pushed for the plan for a school cum chapel costing about RM13,000. Part of the money was raised ,apart from using the 50pc grant from the education Dept. it was reported that Rev Kok and Mr Stanley Ho (later a MP) started St Paul's primary school.

The site chosen for the building of the primary school cum chapel was a secondary jungle at that time, though it was only about a quarter mile from the township. This was cleared and the levelling of the hilltop was done by hand by some older Christian students from Kung Ming Chinese School under the leadership of Rev Kok.." a Parish worker named Margaret Chong wrote in a commemorative magazine of the Anglican Diocese of Sabah.

According to her ,when the primary school was built in 1954, Rev Kok's cousin, Kok Hon Siong ,a trained teacher was engaged to become the first headmaster of St Paul's Primary School. About 110 students were enrolled in 3 classrooms. Kok resigned at the end of 1959 to go into business, and Rev Tudball became the first Principal of both St Paul's primary and Secondary School in 1960, his place was taken over by Ms parker for a short while. She was succeeded by Rev Bisett in early 1961 but left at the end of 1961, and was replaced by Thien Thau Kiong in early 1962.

Thien who left in Aug 1963 for further studies in Canada ,now resides in Perth.Australia.

Rev Father Pun from the Diocese of Hong Kong took over a s acting Principal for half a year until the appointment of Noel Chin in Jan 1964 until Aug 1968 when he was transferred to All Saints School, KKas Principal. rev Father Colin Hurford, then a teacher of SM St Paul ,became the acting Principal until 1970.

The senior Kok is 74 today and still residing in Beaufort. His son, Vincient Kok studied at the secondary school where he completed Form 5 in 1978. Many years after his return from overseas in 1988, Vincient became the Chairman of the School Management Board of SM St Paul today.

"We (board) have taken over management of the computer lab and invested RM40,000 in a Microsoft lessons programme for Form One students since last year. This year, we have some 130 students in the programme. We have employed one graduate teacher and 2 assistants to conduct the lessons. This is our contribution to St Paul's Secondary School", said Vincient.

Special Report
DAILY EXPRESS
10th Aug 2008