History of High School Batu Pahat

High School Batu Pahat was built in the year 1914. At that time, the school was one of the first English school in the state of Johore. It was then known as the Government English School (GES). The original site of the school was situated at Bukit Bendera (which is now where the Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR) and the tennis court along Jalan Pejabat is located). The building itself was just a wooden shack with attap roofings.There were only 40 - 50 students and they were only allowed primary school level education. There were 4 teachers at that time, namely Mr. Samarasingam, Mr. A. Auctland, Mr. Alwee Jaafar and the principal of the school was Mr. Tom Newman. The principal was subsequently replaced by Mr. J.B. Hobday and Mr. L.C. Stevenson in the coming years. The majority of the students at the school started their early education at the age of 14 or 15, because the age limit for education has not been set yet during that year. Therefore, the students consists of various ages group but they were grouped in the same class. The British Administration has not made schooling a compulsory rule, and therefore there were a high rate of absenteeism and truancy. This caused the principal to spend most of his time catching truants or those who tried. Classes were severely affected due to this matter. But there was no solution at that time and the matter became increasingly serious.In the year 1916, a temporary school building was built at Simpang Rantai, (this place is now the hostels for the police's families in Batu Pahat). A few years later Tuan Syed Abdul Rahman al-Kudcy was to replace Mr. L.C. Stevenson as the principal of GES. During Tuan Syed's tenure, the number of students increased to 200. Following that, in 1918 a new bigger building was built at the current site at a cost of $60,000.00

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAIN HALL

This building is to become the main office for High School Batu Pahat. The students who were then studying at the temporary school at Simpang Rantai was then moved to the new school in 1919. The double storey building has 8 classrooms with 4 classes each downstairs and upstairs. Tuan Syed Abdul Rahman al-Kudcy was the principal between 1919 till 1922. From then onwards, the number of students gradually increase above 200 students and the teachers increased to 10. The ever increasing number of students caused the lack of space for some classes. Therefore, in the year 1924, extra blocks of classrooms were built at the back of the main hall. This new block consists of 3 science laboratories and 10 classrooms. It was named Blok Cendekiawan and was used to teach Science subjects.Apart from that, a concrete house was built was the school's principal and was situated about '100 ela' from the main building. The site of the house is now the land for the High School Dewan Besar (New Hall). The vegetation between the principal's house and the main building was mainly rubber trees, so the principal in order to go to school has to trek through the plantation and jungle.

JAPANESE OCCUPANCY AND THE RESTORATION OF HSBP

During the Japanese Occupation between the year 1942 - 1945 in Batu Pahat, the main building of the school as well as the principal's quarters were used as the Japanese Army barracks. Besides that, a few of the classrooms were used by the Japanese Military Police or otherwise known as the 'Kempeitai'. It was here that hundreds of victims were tortured till death. Their tortures were not only ruthless but also brutal. Victims' bodies were hung from trees and other parts of the school. This actions caused the Kempeitai to be much feared in the society thus increasing their influence in Batu Pahat. It has been said that the spirits of these Japanese victims still haunts the grounds of High School Batu Pahat, but all this has been brushed aside as urban legends (or is it?)After the Japanese surrendered to the Allied Powers on August 1945, the main building of GES was returned to the British Government, and it was then used back as a school. During that time there were a lot of complications to restore the school back to its original state, as many main parts of the school has been damaged during the war torn years. The job of restoring the school fell on the shoulders of a few head masters namely Mr. Lee Kong Been (1945 - 1946) and Mr. W. Burton (1946 - 1948)

THE YEARS AFTER JAPANESE OCCUPATION

After World War II, the number of students studying in GES increased to 1000 students. There was an urgent need for newer buildings to sustain the growth. So 3 attap roofed buildings were built in between the main building and the principal's quarters, but this is only a temporary measure.

CHANGE OF SCHOOL NAME

In the year 1956, following the robust growth of the school, it was decided to change the school's name from Government English School (GES) to Government High School (GHS). The change of name was to reflect the school's secondary school education level. Before this the school was only catering for students between Standard 1(Primary Level) to Standard 9 (Secondary Level)During the independence year of 1957, the name was changed again to High School Batu Pahat (HSBP) and then to Sekolah Tinggi Batu Pahat (STBP) as what we know as today.

CONSTRUCTION OF BLOK BISTARI

In line with the education development, in the year 1962, two more science laboratories were built and this made the total of laboratories to 5 (3 of which is located in Blok Cendekiawan and 2 more in Blok Bistari, which is located next to the main hall of STBP).

CONSTRUCTION OF BLOK AMANAH

In the year 1964 another double storey building was build which contains 8 classrooms. This building is located near to the principal's house and it replace the 3 attap roofed buildings build earlier. This block is now known as Blok Amanah.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE LIBRARY

From 12th May 1965, the building otherwise occupied by the library which was situated beneath the main hall (now the Counselling Room) was shifted to its new location which is near to the school's canteen. This building is known as Blok Mustika. The library was erected using the contributions and effort from the Old Boys Association (Persatuan Murid-Murid Tua Sekolah Tinggi Batu Pahat).To build this new wing, the school's authorities held a show presenting the works of Macbeth taken from Shakespeare performances. The show was under the authority of the then principal, Mr. K.M. Mathai and was held on September 1964 with the police approval code no. 40/64 Batu Pahat. The show has a goal which was to collect $10,000.00 but the real collection was only $5447.00. After deducting the show costs, there left the amount of $4498.15. This figure was based on the financial report for STBP dated 12th October 1964The ceremony to lay down the stone foundation measuring 65ft x 60ft was done on 21st March 1964. The contractor assigned for this job was Contractor Tan Meng Huat from 100-1, Jalan Syahbandar, Batu Pahat. The opening of the library was then officiated by the YB Malaysian Education Minister on 31st May 1965. The plaque of the officiation can still be seen upon entering the main gates of STBP

CONSTRUCTION OF BLOK BUDIMAN

In the year 1968, another attap roofed building was demolished and replaced with a double storey block which consists of 6 classrooms. This block was thereafter named Blok Budiman. The construction of this block was in tandem with the admission of Form 6 Arts in HSBP, and it also enables HSBP to admit more students to the school.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW CANTEEN

During the same time (1968), a new canteen with bigger capacity was built to replace the old one. This canteen is located next to the library and is still in operation today.

CONSTRUCTION OF ASPUTERA (HOSTEL)

From the year 1968 onwards, the number of students from rural areas have been increasing steadily. They chose HSBP because the school is one of the first established in the state of Johore. These rural students faced the problem of lodgings and transportation when coming to study in town. The school board decided that a hostel would be built to counter this problem. The hostel was built in 1969 and could accomodate 100 students. It was known as ASPUTERA (Asrama Putera Sekolah Tinggi Batu Pahat). It is used as accomodation for students from Form 1 to Form 5. It was built on the east side of the school overlooking Jalan Zahrah.In 1995, the hostel was burnt, it destroyed most of the upper floors but fortunately no loss of life occured. The restoration of the building was completed a few years later.

CONSTRUCTION OF BLOK DEDIKASI

Over the years the development of the school hasnt stopped one bit. The lack of science laboratories can be felt when the form six science stream was introduced in 1969. To overcome the lack of these labs, three (3) new science laboratories were built in the year 1973. This labs were located next to the main school building. It was then known as 'Blok Dedikasi'. A part of the building was used as the teachers' room and could accomodate up to 80 teachers. Before this the teachers' room was located below the main building, which is being used as a Resource Room (Bilik Sumber) now.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MOSQUE

Apart from giving secular education to the students in this high school, teachers and Muslim students strove to construct a building for Muslim to worship meeting their requirements and spiritual needs. A committee was then formed on 27 April 1976, it was chaired by the then Headmaster, Encik Mohd Ismail Othman. In the end on 13 July 1977 the mosque was built with the help of the Batu Pahat Tuan Kadi. The cost to build the mosque came from different parties, among them were the Prime Minister Department who donated $20,000. The person responsible for this amount was Encik Mustapha bin Mohamad, the Prime Minister Political Secretary who was also an ex-student of HSBP. UMNO Batu Pahat Branch donated $3,000 and Bandar Penggaran ADUN donated $1,500.The mosque was completed in the year 1977 and its opening was officiated by YB Dato' Musa bin Hitam, the Minister Education of Malaysia on 8 September 1979 in conjunction with the school's diamond jubilee celebrations. He also contributed a further $5,000 to meet the needs of the school.


CONSTRUCTION OF THE PAVILLION (ASTAKA)

A pavillion was built next to the school's hostel (ASPUTERA), and its located at the end of the school's 'Padang A'. It was constructed with the contribution of the Old Boys High School Club. Its purpose was to meet the needs of functions that were often held on the sports field be it for district official purpose or the school's purpose. An example would be the Closing Ceremony for the HSBP Annual Sports Meet.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE HSBP NEW HALL (DEWAN BARU/BESAR)

HSBP new hall was build to cater for the students active participation in official functions, i.e. weekly assemblies, the old Bakat Leo concerts (this was taken down some years back due to security reasons), International Understanding (IU) nite, etc.The approval to build this hall was announced by the YB Dato' Musa Hitam on behalf of the Education Ministry when he officiated the diamond jubilee for HSBP on 8 September 1979. The building started taking shape in the year 1980, and the old complex housing the principal's residence was demolished to make way for the project. The new hall was to have been completed in August 1982 but it was delayed for one month. The hall was only used in the early months of 1983. The administration of the new hall was put in hands of a teacher who is known as the 'Secretary' and was assisted by a Hall Council Member.The facilities as well as the fixtures for this new hall came through the contribution of a few parties. YB Dato' Haji Daud Mohd. Taha donated 236 plastic chairs worth an estimated RM5,000. The State Education Ministry allocated about 800 stackable chairs (these chairs were then moved to classes due to insufficient chairs). The loud speaker system was fixed in 1986. The system consists of a US Peavey Mixer Amplifier (model XR-600B), 2 Peavey speaker boxes (Enclosure 2420H model)and an Ibanez microphone (Dynamic TH300 model). This system was bought from Swee Lee Co., 03-23 Beras Basah Complex, Singapore. The allocation to buy this system came from a school's fund.