Imminent change: SMK Convent Pulau Tikus will stop being a government-aided school soon. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: SMK Convent Pulau Tikus (CPT), which will cease being a government-aided school at the end of the current academic year in March, will be heading in a different direction than the iconic SMK Convent Light Street (CLS).
Both schools are set to be returned to the care of the Infant Jesus Sisters (IJS) religious order that owns 56 mission schools across the nation.
Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, Sister Mary Theresa Chua, the IJS provincial in the country, told Sunday Star that the two convents would be the very first schools to be returned to them since all mission schools were brought under the national education umbrella in the 1970s.
“CLS and CPT will be the first two convent schools returned to the Sisters. What we can say is that we are planning something different for CLS and CPT serving different demographics that we feel will make a difference for future – (to be offered) education that is relevant.
“Our school motto will still hold in whatever education institution (that is) to be established: Simple in virtue, steadfast in duty,” Sister Mary Theresa said.
She added that no further details could be released at this time as there were regulatory approvals regarding the future of the schools were still pending.
To pave the way for the return of both schools, no new students were accepted after 2018.
In 2020, it had been announced that CLS (that shares a compound with SK Convent Light Street, set to also be returned to the Sisters next year) would be reopening as a private international school.
Two CLS alumnae will oversee the running of the new institution through their education company ACE Edventure, which also runs three private schools in Selangor.
CLS, located in the heart of George Town, was established in 1852 and is the oldest all-girls school in South-East Asia, while CPT marked its 100th anniversary last year.
