SMJK Sam Tet (Chinese: 三德国民型华文中学; Malay: Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan Sam Tet) is a national-type Chinese-based Roman Catholic secondary school for boys located in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
The founder of the school is Father Fourgs from the local St. Michael Catholic Church.
SMJK Sam Tet owes its existence to Father Fourgs, a French expatriate missionary priest from the local Catholic Church.
Being displeased with the high percentage of illiteracy amongst the local populace, he organized a meeting with the parish community to discuss the issue at hand.
The outcome of that meeting was a plan to construct a Chinese-medium school (but now considered national-type ethnic Chinese-based with Malay as language of instruction since 1970s educational reforms) for the predominantly Chinese community.
Father Fourgs was elected as the first school supervisor under the leadership of Wong Chin Sun as the headmaster.
In view of this, the Board of Governors from the local Catholic Church decided to aid in the administration of the school by allocating funds annually.
At the end of the year 1935, Wong Chin Sun retired as the headmaster and was replaced by Phoong Tet Ching in 1936.
In 1940, SRJK Sam Tet decided to build an additional 6 classrooms but the grim grip of World War II on Malaysia forced the project to be put on-hold.
At the beginning of 1952, three Junior Middle I classes were started under the leadership of Brother Joseph Wong as the principal.
The hall was opened by the Yang Mulia Raja Di Hilir Perak Darul Ridzuan on 5 June 1971.
The building was opened by the Yang Berhormat Haji Mohamed bin Yaacob, Minister of Education, on 11 May 1974.
The school continued to expand rapidly with a total of 66 classes, enrolment of 2,423 students and a 137 strong staff.
Extensive upgrading works, including the installation of the air conditioner mentioned, as well as an overhead bridge and the expansion of the staff room and library was initiated through events e.g. Jogathon since 2007 and completed before the June holidays ended in 2009.
The school song was composed by Wong Ming Fah, lyrics by Bro.
In the year 1998, 28 students scored 5 A's in STPM and SMJK Sam Tet entered the ‘Malaysian Book of Records’ for academic achievement.
SMJK Sam Tet also emerged as the school with the highest number of students scoring a 4.0 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) for 2016 in Perak.
All of the teachers and students took part in this historical event, marking a huge milestone in the school's achievements.
SMJK Sam Tet has made it into the Malaysia Book of Records for the second time when staff and students organised a mass "zongzi" (sticky rice dumplings) making event at their school field on 15 June 2015 in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese Dumpling Festival.
[6] In 2015, SMJK Sam Tet was branded a Cluster School of Excellence (Sekolah Kluster Kecemerlangan) by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.