The Convent Bukit Nanas girls’ school founded in 1899 is one of the oldest schools in Malaysia. Like many of the country’s oldest schools it owes its creation to the religious zeal of foreign missionaries. In the case of Convent Bukit Nanas (CBN) it was the Roman Catholic teaching organisation called the Sisters of Infant Jesus.
In 1899 three sisters of that organisation arrived in Kuala Lumpur to establish a new school. The city was growing rapidly at the end of the 19th century due primarily to the success of the tin mining industry and the population was in need of new schools.
According to Kamsiah Mohammad in his book Convent Bukit Nanas 100 Years at the Top 1899 to 1999, the school began life in a small shed owned by Chinese family whilst the sisters lived in Ampang Road and by 1900 had sixty pupils who were children of immigrant workers.
In 1901, we’re told, the school moved to the Victoria Hotel building in Brickfields assisted by a Chinese businessman and by this time had a staff of seventeen sisters and 122 pupils. Throughout the 1900s the number of pupils rapidly increased and it was decided to build new premises and a site was chosen on Weld Hill (now Bukit Nanas).
The sisters sold the school building in Brickfields to the Government and bought land at Bukit Nanas for $40,000 (Straits) and received contributions from citizens amounting to $26,000. The site chosen was originally a building used as a residence of the Government’s Chief Justice next to St. John’s Institution boys’ school and near St. John’s Cathedral but was considerably enlarged over time.
In 1912 the new school premises were officially opened by Edward Lewis Brockman, the Chief Justice who previously lived on the site, and continued to expand and flourish under the sisters’ stewardship. Its principal in charge was a sister up until 1976 when lay-women took over, although sisters continue to sit on the board of governors.
Malaysia 1786 - 1957 