| Principal | Johara Zen |
| School type | Public semi-boarding school |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Location | Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia |
| School Motto | Arif dan Maju : Wisdom and Progress |
| Corporate Colour | Green |
| Abbreviation | KDPAHA |
Kolej Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah is a public coeducational day and boarding secondary school located in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
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Kolej Datuk Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah was officially opened on 29 September 1978 by the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Hussein Onn. Dubbed the 'Eton of Borneo', the college was formerly known as Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah Junior Science College. Its original purpose was to serve as a Junior College for Form 6 students who obtained good results in their Form 5 examination. In later years, the college started admitting Form 1 to Form 5 students while still keeping the Kolej (College) prefix. Admission for Form 6 students was halted in 2005.
The plan to build the school was granted by the Federal Government in 1972 under the Second Malaysia Plan (RM-2). The construction was completed in 1978, covering 8 hectares.
The college was named after Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah, a local politician who served under Vyner Brooke. He was a well known patriot who opposed the cession of Sarawak to the British Crown in 1946.
Admission to the school is monitored and conducted by the State Education Board. The academic requirement for admission to Form 1 is 5As or 4As + 1B in the UPSR examination while Form 4 requires straight As or 7 As + 1B in the PMR examination. Prior to 2005, Form Six students were admitted based on their SPM results.
The college's motto is Arif dan Maju (Wisdom and Progress), which is also the title of one of its two anthems. The second anthem, Pelajar Bestari (written by Wan Danial Samiun Bin Wan Mohamad), was introduced during Putit bin Haji Ped's tenure as the Principal when the college was declared a Smart School. However, Pelajar Bestari was replaced by Hearts and Minds during Mdm. Johara Zen's administration in 2007. In 2005, during Datin Halimah's administration, We Must, We Can and We will was adopted as the college slogan.
Kolej DPAH Abdillah has four 'houses', each assigned with a particular color (in brackets); Lions (red), Wallabies (orange), All Blacks (black) and Springboks (green). The houses are named after international rugby teams.
Prior to 2001, the names used were either based on the name of local heroes or patriots; Rentap, Sharif Masahor, Rosli Dhobi and Patinggi Ali or Patali for short. In 2001, the names of Proton (national) cars were used, namely Waja, Satria, Perdana and Wira. In 2009, the houses names were changed to the names of four famous Rugby teams from around the world; Lions, Springboks, Wallabies and All Blacks.
Students are assigned to a randomly selected house. Houses compete against each other in the Annual Sports Event and academic competitions like debates.
The SPEKTRA is the school's official yearbook or annual magazine and is also the longest running school publication. The editorial board consists of students and teachers. However, the main body of the editorial board consists of students.
Buletin Bestari is the school's official newsletter, published by the Briged Bestari of Kolej Abdillah. It is unclear as to when Briged Bestari started its publication, but it has been said that it was first published since the school opened. For unknown reasons the school stopped publishing Buletin Bestari in the 1990s. The Media and Computer Club published their own newsletter, Owl's in 2004, in an attempt to start a new official newsletter.
In 2005, the extra curricular adviser changed the name and structure of the Media and Computer Club to Briged Bestari, which in result replaced Owl's with the reborn Buletin Bestari. The Buletin Bestari was republished in the same year.
Other publications include newsletters published by the school's own Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP) companies, such as the From the Eyes of Collegians newsletter.
The school has been competitive in the Young Entrepreneurs Program, and it won several national awards in 2002 and 2005, defeating other schools in Malaysia, two of which are MCKK and Victoria Institution.
Kolej DPAH Abdillah produced great orators in 1980, winning the Chief Minister's Cup Malay Debate Championship. The person in-charge of the Bahasa Malaysia debate team, (Cikgu Bhaludin Salleh) has resigned and opened a well known tuition centre named Pusat Bimbingan Karya.
It was the year 2006 when Kolej DPAH Abdillah won the Sarawak Bahasa Melayu Parliamentary Style Debate. Under the guidance of Cikgu Zaidi and Cikgu Maimunah, the team placed second in the National (Borneo) Bahasa Melayu Parliamentary Style Debate which was held in Labuan.
In 2005, Kolej DPAH Abdillah won the State-level Royal Cup Speech Competition and its representative, Junnyaruin Barat was selected to represent Sarawak in national-level competition.
In 2008, the English Debate team under the guidance of Madam Maria Tan trained with the Debate Team of UiTM Sarawak. UiTM Sarawak was the Borneo Cup Debating Tournament champion for 2006 and 2008, as well as one of the finalists in the Vice-Chancellor Cup Debating Championship in 2007 which was held in Shah Alam. The Kolej Abdillah-UiTM collaboration was funded by the Parents-Teachers Association. The representatives for the year's English Debate was Nalisha Laila [first speaker], Nor Shafiqah [second speaker], Aliff Farhan [third speaker] and Ajibah [reserve].
The Young Entrepreneurs Programme(YEP) of Kolej DPAH Abdillah is probably the most acclaimed club in Kolej Abdillah. It has represented the state of Sarawak several times.
State Level Third place in Report Presentation
State Level
National Level
Chong Zhia Howe has been representing Malaysia in international taekwondo tournaments ever since he was a student at the school. As of 2005, the Kolej Abdillah has two taekwondo clubs: the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) and World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). Both taekwondo clubs would collaborate with the school's other martial arts clubs to do martial arts performances on annual sporting events.
Rugby was first introduced to the school in 1997. The rugby team was supervised by Cikgu Zulkarnain and trained by Coach Pat, who led the team to victory in the Kuching Division tournament in the same year. After the sole win, it was rumored that the players began spending more time in their studies, which resulted in the club's demise in 1999. However, according to trusted sources, the club's downfall was the result of Coach Pat leaving the team to further his studies and leaving no successor to head the team.
The school's rugby team, now known as the 'College Titans', was re-established in 2003 and its players were trained by rugby player and Form 6 student Azfar Zubri, who once captained the Malaysian U-19 rugby team. The College Titans became stronger each year and this in return sparked the other students' interest in the sport. Some of the Titans' players were even selected to play for the Kuching division and state teams. The College Titans is now one of the big names in secondary school rugby, along with the infamous SHOAW Rugby Team.
Kolej DPAH Abdillah once had a competitive dance group which had won several competitions and was described as one of the best dance teams in Kuching. The group was officially started in 1997 and it took part in the Dance Competition organized by the Sarawak Cultural Village in the same year. For its first appearance in the competition, the group was given the 'Kumpulan Harapan' title and brought home 'Piala Harapan', which was quite a confidence boost for them as newcomers. The group then immediately became a favorite and received good critics from the judges of the competition. Since then, there were many invitations for the group to perform in big events around Kuching. In the same year, they won a dance competition organized by the Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) on the Kuching City Day (first place for school category - cultural performance). This achievement led the group to practice harder the next year and it was paid off when the group took first place in the Sarawak Cultural Village School dance competition. They also won DBKU's Dance Competition in the same year. In 1999, the senior dancers graduated from school and that left the new dancers struggling to keep their reign as a champions but it proved to be a challenging year for the fresh faces. The newly recruited dancers only managed to take the second or third place in most of the competitions they took part in. In 2000, the group once again recruited new dancers. However, due to problems such as instructor replacements and irregular schedule changes, the group was not able to perform at their best and failed to bag any prizes in any competitions. It was a total meltdown for them but the Kolej DPAH Abdillah Dance Group (now also known as the Kassorga Dancers) had the best dancers in their time. Kolej DPAH Abdillah Dance Group was labelled a 'one hit wonder team' then.
For full article on Brethren of Datu Abdillah, click here.
Kolej DPAH Abdillah's extra-large Jalur Gemilang was featured in Malaysia's media in year 2002 and 2003. [1]
1. "Reminiscing the Glorious Past; Kolej Abdillah since 1979" - OWLs, 10 May 2007
2. Spektra Editorial (2005) Spektra 2005
3. Spektra Editorial (2004) Spektra 2004
4. Spektra Editorial (2003) Spektra 2003
5. Spektra Editorial (2002) Spektra 2002
6. Spektra Editorial (2001) Spektra 2001
7. Spektra Editorial (2000) Spektra 2000
8. Spektra Editorial (1999) Spektra 1999
9. Spektra Editorial (1998) Spektra 1998
10. Spektra Editorial (1997) Spektra 1997
11. Spektra Editorial (1996) Spektra 1996
12. Spektra Editorial (1995) Spektra 1995
13. Spektra Editorial (1994) Spektra 1994
14. Spektra Editorial (1980) Spektra 1980