The Roman Catholics started their missionary schools in Malaya back in 1852, when the Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus and La Salle Brothers started a school for boys and girls in Penang.

Schools such as St John’s Institution and St Mary’s in Kuala Lumpur, St Michael’s in Ipoh, Sekolah Kebangsaan La Salle and Sekolah Kebangsaan Assunta in Petaling Jaya and the Sacred Heart Convent in Malacca are a legacy of the Catholic missionaries.

However, the Catholics were not the first to start a missionary school. The Anglicans were first when Rev Robert Hutchings started the Penang Free School in 1816. In 1891, the Methodists followed suit by establishing the Anglo-Chinese School in Penang.

Classes in these schools were taught in English and they often had a good mix of students from different ethnicities, religious backgrounds and socio-economic classes. Many of Malaysia’s illustrious sons and daughters such as Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Ali, former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein Onn had studied in mission schools.

Students from mission schools are often touted as having the X-factor and being more rounded, often excelling in both studies and sports. These English-medium schools were the preferred choice of many parents.

Famous missionary school figures includes Sister Enda Ryan, Brother Michael Jacques and Brother Lawrence Spitzig.

Today, most mission schools, which become partially aided schools in the 1970s (the schools agreed to Education Ministry supplying and paying teachers and covering basic operational costs while the schools retained the ownership of the land and buildings) are the legacy of the Catholics and Methodists.

There are currently about 462 mission schools in the country, of which 227 are in Peninsular Malaysia and 235 are in Sabah and Sarawak.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, September 5, 2011.