SMS Tapah

Sekolah Menengah Sains Tapah SESTA
School official amblem
Location
Tapah, Perak Darul Ridzuan Malaysia
Coordinates	4°13′06″N 101°17′02″E / 4.218356692828896°N 101.28375861008779°E / 4.218356692828896; 101.28375861008779Coordinates: 4°13′06″N 101°17′02″E / 4.218356692828896°N 101.28375861008779°E / 4.218356692828896; 101.28375861008779
Information
Type	Boarding school, High-Achieving School
Motto	Malay: Berilmu Bertakwa (Knowledgeable and Faithful)
Established	11 April 2010 (2010-04-11)
School district	Batang Padang
Authority	Malaysia Education Ministry (Division of Boarding School)
Principal	Safarim bin Salim
Grades	Form 1 to Form 5 (standard Malaysian secondary school grades)
Age range	13-17
Language	Malay, English, Arabic, Japanese, French and Mandarin
Campus size	30 acre (0.121 sqm^2)
Campus type	Closed access campus

Sekolah Menengah Sains Tapah (English: Tapah Science Secondary School; abbreviated SESTA) is a Malaysian government boarding school (Sekolah Berasrama Penuh/SBP) located in the town of Tapah, Perak. It occupies an area of 30 acre land, four kilometers from the town. It began its operation on 12 April 2010.^[1]

Location[]

SESTA is located 4 kilometer (3 miles) from Tapah main town, along the Federal Route 59 (Tapah-Cameron Highlands road) and just opposite to the 4 Malay Regiment (4RAMD) army camp and beside the new Batang Padang District Education Office (PPD). It is mainly accessible from the town via the FT1-FT59 junction, from Cameron Highlands 50km down west, and also 2km eastward from Tapah exit of North-South Highway (E1) towards the same route.

History[]

Planning and Construction[]

Construction started on 12 October 2006 and was scheduled to complete on 11 November 2008, but completion was delayed to 29 August 2009. Zulkarnain Zainal Abidin was appointed as the caretaker of the school in March 2009, but his appointment were delayed until June due to the slow school construction progress. The total cost of construction was RM38,482,000.00.^[2]

Opening[]

The school was opened on 23 October 2009 by Hajjah Norlia Mohd Shuhaili, Deputy Director of the Residential and Excellence School Department. On 1 February 2010 Hadi Mat Dain was appointed as the first principal of the school. By March 2010, 35 teachers had been hired. The school's first intake of students started on 16 April 2010.^[3] Owing to lack of complete infrastructure at the time, the Upper Form intake began the following year.

Early years[]

By February 2012 it has completed enrolling students from Form 1 until 5. The SPM batch of 2012 is also the first batchthat graduated from this school. After 2 years, Hadi Mat Dain transferred to his hometown in Temerloh thus in December his place is taken by Sulaiman Samsudin. This also marks a complete change of administration members as Asma Azmin Rashid (Student Affairs Assistant) also moved to SBPI Gopeng and later Safarim Salim (Co-curriculum Assistant) took his place. Ainon Mardziah from STAR filled the position Safarim has left.^[4]

In 2013 due to excellent performance of Class 2012, Perak Education Department has chosen the school as the venue of the state's SPM result announcement. The school placed second behind MCKK in overall state results, with more than 30 students get all A's. The state Education Department remarked this achievement outstanding for a new school. The PMR candidates of 2012 also recorded outstanding results as more than 50 students getting all A's in their results, placing third in state overall results.

However, in October that year SESTA made it through the headline again, due to the school being in the series of food poisoning. Around 200 students sent to the district clinic and some are detained in hospital. This also affects the students which are taking PMR on the fateful day.^[5]

Upgrading to a Cluster School[]

The outstanding performance in SPM examination continues with Class 2013 (Partisan) achieved similar results like 2012. The overall results for their Bahasa Melayu paper is really great, with a GPS of 0.12. Due to this achievement and subsequent achievement in co-curricular activities, the Education Ministry has granted SESTA with the title of Sekolah Kluster Kecemerlangan (SKK) in 2014.

2014 also marks a great year for SESTA. The Innovation teams won awards from local and international tournaments, as far as Europe. So does the Adikestari traditional dancing team. The most remarkable is SESTA placed first in their SPM 2014 results in Perak, with a record of more than 40 students getting all A's. This follows a good start for their PT3 candidates which, despite low results nationwide, recording 29 students getting all A's. This is considered much of a surprise since even much of the boarding school don't have such high achievements.

In 2015, SESTA for the first time handles 2 big events in a year. First is SBP National Japanese Language Cultural Day (Hari Kebudayaan Bahasa Jepun, HKBJ) which is a Japanese cultural event for SBP students. Second is Coaching of Coaches (COC), a training for SBP hostel leaders about daily hostel management and event management. Both events was done successfully.

High Performance School[]

SESTA has been declared as from the Education Ministry in April 2016, one of the youngest school that has been offered of such title. A declaration event is done in SESTA with all former principal attended the event.

Earlier in February SESTA takes part in Sorak Semangat Le Tour de Langkawi 2016, a cheering event for schools which location is involved in Le Tour de Langkawi routes. Due to their overwhelming efforts and spirits shown, they won the grand prize.

However, in March the same year, SESTA once again involved in a mass food poisoning cases, which source is from lace pancake (roti jala) which were prepared unhygienically. Tens of students became victims, with several of them were warded in Tapah Hospital for some while. This made a headline into the national medias.^[6]

SESTA once again make a record as the most performing school in SPM History subject in SPM 2016.

Major change in administration[]

After becoming a Senior Assistant for 7 years, Encik Zulkarnain Zainal Abidin retired from his teaching profession in 2017. Encik Safarim Salim takes his post, and the Student Affairs Assistant position is taken by Encik Thanusi Shaaban from Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman Ipoh. Later in mid-2017 Puan Ainun Mardziah retired from her career as a teacher, and Senior Teacher of Language Departments, Encik Mohd Ridzuan Mahad is appointed to the position of Senior Co-curricular Assistant.

Later in September 2017, Tuan Haji Rezazali Ahmad Ansar moves again as principal in another school in Batang Padang. Tuan Haji Shaharuddin Mohd Daud became SESTA fourth principal. This again marked another major administration change that happened in a year for the school.

In August 2020, another major change has made its way when Senior Assistant, Encik Safarim Salim has been called to held a Principal position at Sekolah Menengah Sains Pokok Sena, Kedah, making the position of SESTA's Senior Assistant vacant. And mid-July when Senior Teacher in Humanitarian Department, En. Izaheri Mohd Mokhtar transferred to Sekolah Sultan Yusof, Batu Gajah as Senior Assistant in Student Affairs.

Later in early September 2020, vacancies in administration has been filled, leading the way is Mohd Ridzuan as the new Senior Assistant, Salwana Salleh as the new Co-curricular Senior Assistant, Murniza Md Jidin as the new Senior Teacher in Student Affairs, and Puan Jazimah binti Shamdin @ Shamsudin as Senior Teacher in Techniques and Vocational Department.^[7][8][9]

Safarim bin Salim returns from Pokok Sena to helm SESTA as its fifth principal on 20 September 2021, as Shaharuddin retired from his teaching service. He is the first ever principal who has a teaching and leadership experience in SESTA given his past records.

Inauguration[]

After around 10 years, SESTA has been finally inaugurated by the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah on 18 October 2019 in a grand ceremony held at Dewan Seri Bitara (formerly and famously known as Dewan SESTA), in conjunction with his birthday celebration.^[10] Perak nobles and leaders, particularly the Raja Permaisuri Tuanku Zara, both Raja Muda and Raja Dihilir also attended the ceremony with their respective spouses, alongside the then Menteri Besar, Ahmad Faizal.

Campus overview[]

SESTA is a semi-closed campus, with movements control differ per group. Students only allowed to go out during outing or overnight homecoming, and their relatives can only visit during weekend on certain visiting hours. Teachers and their relatives that live here has an all-time access out and in of the campus, others are required to register their entry beforehand. However public can access the school particularly during Friday prayer as the musolla are registered as Surau Diri Jumaat (lit: Friday-enabled Musolla, a certain status that allow them to handle Muslim's Friday Prayer) and occasionally during some open events from the school or other parties held here

The campus had a main hall, a mini stadium, an administrative block, a pair of academic building and four special activity blocks. All the blocks are easily accessible with covered pathways. There are also three blocks of quarters where some of the teachers reside there, alongside 4 unit of terrace quarters for the main administrators. Hostel complex are consisted of two main hostel buildings for male and female students, a musolla building and a dining hall.

References