Academics
Kuching High curriculum, similar to other government high school, is divided into a three-year lower secondary stage and two-year upper secondary stage. Lower secondary stage consists of Form 1 to Form 3, while Upper Secondary stage consists of Form 4 and Form 5. A one-year Removal class prepares students who have failed their UPSR exam for Form 1.
Compulsory subjects of the lower secondary includes Malay Language, English Language, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Living Skills (Option 4: Business and Commerce), Physical Education, Art and Civics. Non-Muslim students would have to study Moral Education, while the Muslims students take Islamic studies. The Chinese Language is an elective subject which most students take. Students in Removal classes would have to take Malay Language in Practice (Amali Bahasa Melayu). At the end of Form 3, students would sit for the PMR examination, and later, they could enter the school’s upper secondary stage, where they can choose to enter the art, science or technology ‘streams’.Compulsory subjects, which have to be partaken by students from all three streams include Malay Language, English Language, Mathematics, History, Moral Education/Islamic Studies, Civics and Physical Education. Students would sit for the SPM examination administered by the Ministry of education at the end of their Form 5 before graduation.
In addition to the core subjects, Kuching High also offers a broad range of elective subjects for senior students. Generally, Science streams would have Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Additional Mathematics and English for Science and Technology. Both technology and art streams offer Commerce, Science and Art. Computer science enthusiasts could take up Information, Communication and Technology which is only offered in the technology stream; whereas the art students can take up Geography.
A popular elective subject in both upper and lower secondary stage of Kuching High is Chinese Language which is taken up by most students, viz. the S1, S3, S4, S5, A1 and A3 classes.
“Due to its historical past - being a Chinese-converted secondary school since 1963 - Chinese language is essentially an important and popular subject among the students, in line with its justification of conversion and establishment. Till today, this is still looked upon as the soul and spirit of Kuching High, without which the school will be looked upon as "rootless".”
Besides elective subjects taught in classes, some students opt to take additional subjects independently to sit for their SPM examination. The common ones includes Bible knowledge and Chinese literature.
The school has been widely recognized by the public. The Sarawak Foundation awarded the Chief Minister Excellent School Awards to the school in 2003. It has been deemed the state’s Most Promising School by the Education Department of Sarawak in 2002. In SPM 2008, there are 2 students scoring 13A1s, 9 students scoring 12A1s and 33 students scoring at 12As.16 students achieved 11As in the SPM examination apart from 13 students scoring 10As. SMK Kuching High is one of the top 10 schools in Sarawak.
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