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The School Sports Day was held on Saturday, 6th of March, 2010. But the actual event begun on the night of the 5th when representatives of the old boys presented sports vests to their old houses at a function at the school hall. The vests was part of a program to aid the school in sports - earlier the old boys through STAROBA had also presented running spikes to the houses under the recently-introduced mentor program. The vests and the the spikes would be kept by the school and will be used for future sporting events. Except for the Red House, all costs for the vests and spikes were fully sponsored by the various house mentors. Early in the week the school was presented with a hurdle set, courtesy of Chot Awang and his friends. Unfortunately, on the same day we had seen with our own eyes how bad the sports was in STAR. We came across the basketball team who had to buy their own jerseys and shorts at RM40 each. Imagine, school players forking out their own money to buy kits just to represent the school - a far cry from the old days when even playing boots were subsidized by the school. We were one day too late with our vests, if not we could have saved the basketball players their precious money.

Of course during the presentation ceremony on Friday night, the students had their say too. As expected, the major issue brought up by the students was mainly on the infrastructure. For example, the Green House dwellers had raised once again the problem of "low-water pressure" at their hostel. This was brought up during the OBW 2009 and the during the dialogue between the teachers and the old boys in May, 2009. For those in the dark about the issue, the Green House is now located in a new block between the White House and the Yellow House. We have answered this before, the problem lies with the design of the roof pitch of the Green House - it could not accommodate a big water tank and the problem is probably not with the water pressure but with the amount of the water that could be stored in the tank. We suggest the school conducts a thorough analysis of the problem and come out with a long-term solution. As much as we wish to help the school, maintenance and repairs should be undertaken by the school itself through the grant made available by the Ministry of Education.

The sports day on the 6th was itself a big event. There was a march past, a brass band show and the all familiar athletics events. The guest of honour was Datuk Nasir Ahmad, CEO of PUNB of Batch 72. Hurdles which has been absent for so many years has been reintroduced as an exhibition event. Probably it will once again feature as a standard athletic event beginning next year. Lest we forget, many inter-house sporting events and games have been abolished - like inter-house rugby game etc. Even the inter-house debate is no longer in the calendar. It is our role, as former students of the school to bring back these events back to the school.

One of the most interesting aspect of the Sports Day was how creative the students were. Each house had their own castle (and I was told the students spent the whole night decorating these styrofoam & polystrene castles) and it became one of the most eagerly awaited competitions on the Sports Day. And it was won by the Blue House. For those curious enough to know, the athletics champions for 2010 is the White House.

It was a great day for most of the old boys who attended the show. And I believe for the students too. We are glad to be able to chip in to help the school and I believe there are many more things we can do to help without being accused of meddling in the day-to-day administration of the school. Perhaps, the old boys should throw in money to rebuild the school rugby team and since the school was not selected as an SBT because of its lack of international exposure - a strong school rugby team with an international annual tournament against a Thai school team could help. We ought to seriously ponder this.

Last but not least, STAROBA wishes to thank all those who have contributed their precious time, money and expertise to help with the school sports day.

Video Perbarisan Rumah-Rumah

Pictures will be uploaded later

Day 1 (Friday): Omar Suhaimi fetched me from Putrajaya and we left around 615pm, and yes we were heading for Ipoh – attending the school 54th. Annual Sports Day. Journey was pleasant and Omar took his time and was careful on the road eventhough he had an appointment to be met. We had a brief stop at Tapah RnR for a bite of pau and arrived just on time for the Mentor-Mentee programme and the official handing ceremony of the sports vest at the school hall. The guys were already there – Mohamad Sale and Omar Abdullah (yes, all the way from JB!!), Rostam, Azlan Abdullah, Saleh Yusof (Batch 72 – Green House, but didn't recognize him, he changed a lot!), Fathil Sharif , Tarmunif Mokhtar and of course Yahya Daud as well as other 'old boys' (couldn't remember their names).

Session was conducted by Tarmunif. Of course everybody was upset and in total disbelieved (especially people like me who have not been in contact with the school), when we heard of the school performances especially in sports. Lost 3 – 0 to Izzuddin Shah in volleyball!!? Are we in Alice Dreamland or something? Never heard or dreamed of those days. Izzuddin guys might have felt like they were dreaming then! Un'percaya'ble, but it was a reality. Yahya who was seated next to me, was so 'sedih" and was seen wiping his eyes hearing the news. Other games were not that encouraging as well. It was for the reason I guessed, among others, the 'push' on this mentor-mentee agenda. And of late, the exclusion from the top 20 schools as released by MOE, is the final straw! And the grievances echoed by the students, made everyone upset and sad. We need a transformation agenda and an action plan – very fast!

THERE have been many brickbats thrown at the selection of the country's first 20 high performance schools (HPS).

Some have questioned why top names such as Penang Free School, St Michael's Institution (Ipoh), Victoria Institution (Kuala Lumpur) or SMK St Joseph (Kuching) were left out of the list. (pic: Victoria Institution)

Many people have commented that identifying and labelling high performance schools would lead to elitism, while others have said that there should be a level playing field for all schools.

As reported in the dailies,  last year's SPM results will be announced officially on 11th. March 2010. Well, it might not be a good timing. Why? Because on the 6th is the school annual sports. So, by the time the results is out people are still talking about the sports day - especially the old boys who are concerned. Let's hope the discussion would be nothing of frustrations and regrets.

The results of the 2009 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) examinations will be announced next Thursday (March 11), according to a statement from the director-general of education.

 The results will be released at schools from 10am on that day, the statement said, adding that private candidates will get their results in the mail.

A total of 165,853 sat for the SPM written examination at 3,569 centres in the country between Nov 18 and Dec 16 last year while 6,920 candidates took the STAM examination at 98 centres between Oct 19 and 27, the statement said. -- Bernama

The original song is "When The Saint Goes Marching In". To those in my batch, many would still remember that we adopted the song for our cheer with some modification on the lyrics, but the melody remained.

As we were 'nearing' the annual sports day, the atmosphere was so lively. Trainings, heats and rehearsals took place almost everyday. Those with potential winners would start to plan strategies on how to become champions. Some would train their qurtet to reduce the time taken to change baton or decided on who to take the bends. Those who thought they would be in the final of tug-of-war would start to arrange the positions of their strong men. The thin and long legged would be preparing their muscles to adopt the perfect technic and skip jumps. The musculars would also be doing their "chinning" to make sure the arms and hands would be strong enough to do the throwing.

This is unconfirmed news.

Mansor (Chot) Awang has been admitted to hospital, believed to be HKL. I had gone to his house a few hours ago to verify this but unfortunately there was nobody at home. We will keep you up to date on this as soon as the news is verified.

Updated 7:00 pm.

It is confirmed Chot has been admitted to HKL, Wad 7, Bilik No 2, Tingkat 2, Main Block. Please note visiting hours for HKL are between 12:30 pm to 7:30 pm. His phone number is +60134361818.  

Updated noon 28/2

We have visited him today. According to Chot there was some problems with his neck - suspected fractured bone, at least according to the x-ray. At the same time, he was having problems with right arm. He would undergo MRI on Monday. 

Updated 4th of March

Please note Chot is now at Room 5, Wad 7 of the same block. He has not been operated yet and is still waiting for his MRI to be done.

As the President of STAROBA I am honoured to thank Batch 74 for the remarkable gift of a new hurdle set to the school. The hurdle set is a big step towards making STAR, once again, a formidable force in athletics. The gift is timely considering that sports will be made compulsory for all students by 2011. And we should not forget that STAR through the 60s and 70s had produced numerous hurdle champions, including Cikgu Yahya Daud. I have nothing but praise for Cikgu Yahya Daud for his efforts and time training the school athletes and I hope many more old boys will come forward to do the same.

The gift by the Batch 74 is a massive beginning for all of us. We care about the school but for many years we had not done enough to help the school. I believe many of us were disappointed when STAR failed the selection as one of the top 20 schools in the country. I have read many comments, ideas and proposals on how we could get STAR on the right footing again. We need to work together, the school, the old boys, the teachers and the authorities. I have to confess there are many disagreements between the school and the old boys but they should not become hurdles on our journey towards success and recognition.

STAROBA is an organization mostly run by those who left school in the 60s and 70s. We see STAR as we used to see it 30 or 40 years ago and we feel offended when things are not like what they were 30 or 40 years ago. It is time we accept the fact that changes are here to stay. But at the same time we must not close our eyes to the ideals and aspirations of our early leaders on why they built STAR. It was to help and assist the poor and the underprivileged from the rural areas. Today meritocracy once again is the order of the day as it was 30 and 40 years ago where for many of us STAR was our sole reason for success in the face of competition. By helping STAR today we are helping those who deserve the most - the poor and the underprivileged. Just like we were before.

Once again, on behalf of STAROBA, I thank Batch 74 and Cikgu Yahya Daud for their efforts. Thank you.

Dato' Hamzah Zainudin

I have reincorporated the membership list (you can find this under the menu MEMBERSHIP) but you need to login first before you can read the list. This is to safeguard the privacy of the members concerned. For security reason, you are not allowed to add or edit the list but if you wish to add anything, just email me. I hope to complete this by midnight today - and the list covers only those who have re-registered since this site went online around August, 2008. For old list, I need to sort out the data first since it is a bit messy making it almost impossible to import raw to the site.

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