St. Xavier’s Institution has a long history going back to the time of Francis Light, founder of Penang, since it was Light who in 1787 offered asylum to its founder, Bishop Arnaud-Antoine Garnault, who was a Roman Catholic suffering persecution in Siam. On his arrival in Penang Bishop Garnault set up a Roman Catholic school for boys in Church Street, George Town.
Later in 1852 the school’s administration was taken over by three members of the De La Salle Brothers, the French Catholic teaching institution founded in the 18th century. The De La Salle Brothers renamed the school after St. Francis Xavier, the Spanish Catholic missionary who was active in the region, and moved to new premises in Farquhar Street, George Town where the school expanded and prospered.
During the Japanese occupation during World War II the school was destroyed by Allied bombing but after the war teaching was recommenced from temporary wooden buildings nearby. Finally, in 1954 the school’s new premises were completed which is the building in Farquhar Street which we see today.
St. Xavier’s Institution is the oldest Roman Catholic School in Malaysia and maintains its rivalry with the Penang Free School. It continues as part of the Lasallian School network embracing several schools in Malaysia including St. Michael’s Institution, Ipoh, as well as schools all over Asia.
In 2022 it was announced that the secondary school would become co-educational for the first time in its 170 year history, taking in 70 girls into Form One, coming mainly from the soon to be closed, SK Convent Light Street (CLS). The decision was said to prompted by dwindling numbers due to families increasingly moving to the suburbs.
Malaysia 1786 - 1957 