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THE spirit of alumni was strong at SJK (C) Sin Kang, which celebrated its 120th anniversary recently, where former pupil Datuk Sim Choo Kheng was driven to give back to his school.
Founded in 1906 in Air Itam, Sim, who is the founder and executive chairman of the Sim Leisure Group, which owns and manages the ESCAPE water theme parks nationally, decided to offer free swimming lessons to the students.
This is after he learnt that 70 per cent of Malaysians do not know how to swim.
Sim, who has a presence in China, Dubai and Singapore, has established a growing empire of water-based amusement parks with strong emphasis on greenery.
Motivated by the turnout and response among the student fraternity, Sim also called on the 5,000 alumni-strong association to continue to give back to the school, which moulded them into becoming responsible citizens.
"We can pool together expertise, experience, networks and social resources to help the school in their extra-curricular efforts and to ensure the students can be given a strong balance of academia. life skills and curricular activities," said Sim.
Since 2024, Sin Kang has rolled out a series of campus and educational improvements.
Classrooms, the school hall, and administrative spaces have been renovated.
Air-conditioning has been upgraded throughout the building.
Digital learning is being progressively introduced, with students equipped with tablets and teachers with digital teaching tools.
But Sim wants the alumni to do more to help students in the modern age; to provide skills such as digital comprehension and strong ethics in dealing with the manipulation of facts, which is growing in attention in tandem with how digitalisation has evolved into becoming an essential tool.
In April this year, Sim also donated 400 bicycles to the school so every student would have the chance to learn cycling on campus.
And Sim was also generous to allow all students of Sin Kang free access to his ESCAPE theme parks at four locations across Malaysia and at KidZania in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, respectively.
Sin Kang Alumni Association chairperson Khoo Lay Har has a deep personal connection to the school.
Her late father, the school principal Khoo Eng Sun, was Sin Kang's first post-war principal, leading the school for nearly three decades from 1954 to 1983.
Like Sim, Khoo is driven to give back to the school and wants a strong reconnection of the alumni, as progressively, it would benefit the school.
"We start with Sin Kang and hopefully, every youngster will know how to swim.
"This is not a competition — it is a national project. A thousand schools joining. Ten years. A different country," added Sim. - August 18, 2026.