Sekolah Menengah Sains Sabah ( en, Sabah Science Secondary School; abbreviated SMESH) is a fully residential school established in Malaysian state of
Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...
. As the first fully residential school in
East Malaysia and the 27th of its kind in Malaysia,
SMESH was previously known as Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Sabah (SBPS). SMESH was established in 1978 but became fully operational on 1 January 1984. It has a permanent campus in Bukit Padang,
Kota Kinabalu. Due to the unsafe state of the campus, SMESH is temporarily operated in a temporary campus in
Tuaran.
History
The idea of having a fully residential school in Sabah was initiated in 1970s. Although SBPS was established in 1978, SBPS started its operation on 1 January 1984 under the leadership of its Founding Principal, Mohd. Radzwan Mohd. Yusof with the assistance of one teacher, Abd Halim Ismail. The first group of SBPS students were enrolled on 26 May 1984. SBPS was renamed as SMESH by the
Ministry of Education (MOE) on 12 April 1997. Prior to 2011, SMESH was made a Smart School and a Cluster of Excellence School.
On 26 May 2011,
Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin declared SMESH a High Performance School. As such, SMESH was given considerable autonomy powers from MOE. For many years, including in 2018, SMESH was ranked the best secondary school in Sabah based on public examination results achieved by students and the school.
In 2014, SMESH became the second best school in Malaysia based on
Malaysian Certificate of Education
The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), or the Malaysian Certificate of Education, is a national examination taken by all fifth-form secondary school students in Malaysia. It is the equivalent of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GC ...
(SPM) 2013 results.
In 2015,
Ministry of Works declared the permanent campus of SMESH in Kota Kinabalu unsafe. Consequently, SMESH was relocated to Tuaran.
The old campus of Kent Teaching Education Institute was set up as the temporary campus of SMESH at the end of 2015.
In March 2018,
Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid announced that RM 72 million was provided rebuild the permanent campus under
Najib Government.
Jimmy Wong later revealed, in July 2018, that the real cost of rebuilding the permanent campus is RM 74.2 million and that the project is still at pre-implementation level.
In July 2018, SMESH was selected as the second school in Malaysia and the first in Sabah to go cashless by MobilityOne.
Leadership
SMESH is led by a senior-grade Principal appointed by MOE. He is later assisted by a Management Council comprising all three Vice Principals and four Head of Departments.
Since the inception of SBPS/SMESH in 1984, six Principals took the helm of the school.
Zaini Zair is the Principal of SMESH since 2008. The following principals preceded him were:
* 1984–1987: Mohd. Radzwan Mohd. Yusof
* 1987–1994: Adnan Ibrahim
* 1994–1996: Abbas Awang
* 1997–2005: Wahid Kapal
* 2005–2008: Rossminah Yamin
* 2008–2022: Zaini bin Zair
* 2023~: Rokiah binti Abdullah
Facilities
In accordance with the status of SMESH as a top school in Sabah, SMESH was equipped with completed facilities. the permanent campus of SMESH has a main hall, four science labs, three workshops, a computer lab, a sports complex, a Muslim prayer hall and two blocks of student accommodation. In addition to Internet access points installed at strategic places around the school, students were given permission to bring own laptops to the school under a set of terms and conditions set by the school.
Achievements
Since 1984, SMESH has recorded numerous achievements at various fields and levels. In academic, SMESH was made the best school in Sabah for 2018 based on SPM 2017 results.
In co-curricular activities, SMESH has been the top school in district-level Interschool Sports Championship. SMESH also received a gold medal in Fully Residential School International Symposium, the recent being in 2018. In administration and finance, SMESH was given a clean audit by the
Auditor General.
Alumni
Since 1984, SMESH has produced hundreds of notable alumni. One of them has been
Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis
Isnaraissah Munirah binti Majilis @ Fakharudy ( Jawi: اغثنا الرئاسة منيرة بنت مجلس @ فخرالرضي; born 11 January 1982) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Deputy Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, ...
who is
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Kota Belud and
Deputy Minister of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment since 2018.
File:Front sms.JPG, Old front entrance
File:Maghrib.jpg, Sceneric view from Boys' hostel during dusk
File:Students of 5 Beta.jpg, School's official uniform
File:Study.JPG, Group discussion in Sri Kinabalu Hall
References
External links
SMESH official website
{{Schools in Sabah
Buildings and structures in Kota Kinabalu
1984 establishments in Malaysia
Educational institutions established in 1984
Co-educational boarding schools