Riam Road Secondary School shines in 4 languages

MIRI: Riam Road Secondary School (RRSS) excelled in three different competitions in Bahasa Malaysia this week, maintaining their mastery in languages: Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, English and German (elective subject).

Its CEO Datuk Dr Fong Onn Min said on Thursday the school successfully defended last year’s title, emerging Overall Champion in the Bahasa Malaysia Drama Competition held at Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri.

The school was also Best in Cinematography, Best Actor (Hosea Pengiran Robert), Best Director (Jasmine Tang Yi Xin), and Best Co-actress (Chung KeFeng).

RRSS led by teachers Ling Siaw Lin and Jong Kui Fun was the only Chinese school competing in the annual competition organised by the Education Department.

A day earlier on April 19 in the inter-secondary school Miri Bahasa Malaysia speech competition, Tristan Yeo Shen Han, the sole Chinese participant, emerged third after SMK Baru and SM Sains.

Out of the 17 schools taking part, RRSS was the only Chinese school.

“This remarkable achievement for a Chinese medium school student helps RRSS live up to her image as a progressive, 5-Star Chinese Independent School in Miri that advocates holistic education and produces all-round multilingual students of calibre,” Dr Fong said in a statement yesterday.

Meanwhile at the Bahasa Malaysia Forum organised by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in Kuching on April 18, RRSS emerged champion by defeating all other Chinese independent schools in the state. RRSS participant Wanthur Yong Tze Wang was Best Speaker.

Dr Fong said this is the third consecutive year the school won the championship. The team was led by teachers Voon Tze Er and Head of Bahasa Department, Seriam Umpeng.

“I attribute the school’s success to its unique 3-in-1 curriculum which is an integrated and modified version of that for Chinese Independent schools, Malaysian national schools, and international schools of England, Hong Kong and Singapore.”

Dr Fong said his students study according to the RRSS syllabus and sit for and excel in different examinations.

RRSS is the only school in Miri with 10 A+ and 12A’s in SPM 2016, the only school with the best possible results of 8A’s in Junior UEC (Unified Examination Certificate of Chinese Schools), and perfect A’s in the Cambridge A-Level examination.

RRSS is a multiracial and multicultural school with a student population of 1,700, comprising various ethnic groups from different medium primary schools.

Chinese is taught at elementary level to students from nonChinese primary schools and eventually all students sit for the SPM among UEC and others.

The school places special emphasis on English, Science and Mathematics and has its own Junior Science, Mathematics and English (JSME) examination syndicate comprising professors from the world’s top-notch universities including Oxford in the UK, Yale and UCLA in the USA and NUS (National University of Singapore) which is number one in Asia.

This ensures students’ standard in the three subjects are at least on par with their counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong and England.