THE Penang St Xavier’s Institution, which is the oldest Catholic Lasallian school in Malaysia, wants to go fully co-ed.
Brother Jason Blaikie who is the brother director of the SXI, said the school is in the midst of sending its application regarding this change to the Penang Education Department when he led a delegation to pay a courtesy call on Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow in Komtar today.
For many years, however, SXI has accepted girls for its Form Six classes.
“We want to revive the past glory of our institution and hope to continue the legacy of this historical institution established way back in 1852,’’ said Blaikie during the courtesy visit.
“Almost a year ago, the Brothers Council has no objection to the proposal to switch to a co-education system (co-ed) and we are in the midst of sending our application regarding this change to the Penang Education Department.
“One of the unique features of our institution is that we have an equal ratio of students from all races and this has been our long-held tradition.
“We have a total of 1,060 students now, but the population has actually dropped. In the 60s, we used to have around 3,000 students and in the 70s nearly 2,500 students,’’ Blaikie added.
Meanwhile Chow commended the decision undertaken by the SXI to become a co-ed school which would indeed be good for boosting enrolment.
“It is good to hear that the institution has decided to include girls in the school which would definitely give a new dimension to it.
“And speaking on the population of the school, perhaps SXI can look to its feeder schools (SK Saint Xavier and SK St Xavier Branch) to help in increasing the population,’’ said Chow.
During the courtesy visit, Chow was also briefed on the infrastructure development of the school.
“The Karpal Singh Hall in the school will be turned into a heritage centre, and we have got some artifacts such as school diary from 1887 to 1898.
“With that, the whole stretch of Farquhar Street will have heritage buildings like the Anglican Church, Penang State Museum, Assumption Church and Cheong Fat Tze Mansion.
“In year 2022, we will be celebrating the 170th anniversary of SXI and we are working towards making the celebration a success,’’ added Blaikie.
The others in the SXI delegation are board members Ooi Gim Ewe and Quah Boo Hock, and SXI PTA members Victor Tan and See Swee Sie.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud