Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman - The Beginning

The Beginning

In 1956, a few hundred promising rural children who had completed their Malay primary level education, and their placement in a few selected schools in Ipoh, Pulau Pinang, Kuala Lipis, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bharu were chosen to be the pioneer students of the first three Malay residential secondary schools for rural children. They were planned in Ipoh, Tg. Malim, and Melaka. These schools were later known as Sekolah Tuanku Abd Rahman (STAR), Ipoh; Sekolah Dato' Abdul Razak (SDAR), Tg. Malim; and Sekolah Tun Fatimah (STF), Melaka.

In 1957, 360 of these 13–15-year-old children were placed in five old wooden military barracks vacated by the Malay Regiments, at what was then known as Baeza Avenue, Ashby Road, Ipoh (the site where Sekolah Kebangsaan Sri Kinta, Jalan Hospital, Ipoh, now stands).

For these children, the military barracks, with twelve wooden classrooms, became their school, known as the Malay Secondary School (MSS), Ipoh. Classrooms, sleeping quarters (dormitories), dining hall etc. were all cramped in the barracks within barbed wire fences surrounding the 4-acre site. There was no space for the school to have a hall, or a playing field.