STANDARD 6 - ISKANDAR SCHOOL (SAHC PRIMARY SCHOOL) 1958Journey To Sultan Abdul Hamid College
Pak Awang, the taxi owner cum driver brought us straight to the main building of the Sultan Abdul Hamid College. Pak Awang has been to the College almost every month since there were a few Collegeians from Jeniang. For my father and I, it was it was our first visit to the College. Compared to my former school at Jeniang, the College looked very awesome indeed. The students of the College also looked smart in their white shirts and khaki trousers.
As specified by the letter of admission to the College, we went up straight up to the first floor. There were already a few parents and students who were queing before us. When our turn came, after perusing over my relevant papers, the school clerk advised my father that I should be enrolled next year that is in 1957 as my age was considered very young. The clerk went on to explain that for the 1956 enrolment, preference were given to much more older candidates. We were very confused as we have come from so far and also spending a lot of money for my preparations. My father then went to sit beside window looking very dejected.
With Allah’s grace, one of the clerks went to my father and introduced himself as Syed Kassim (Dato’ Paduka Syed Mansor Barakbak’s father). Tuan Syed Kassim advised my father to seek an audience with the Chairman of the College Entrance Selection Committee that was Che Mohd. Akib Yaacob, who was the Kota Setar District Officer. The late Tuan Syed Kassim gave my father a few important tips. As Pak Awang also knew the location of the District Office of Kota Setar, he brought us straight to the District Office. The Distict Office was in fact a row of double storey shop lots just across the present Cathay Theater.
Meeting With The Kota Setar District Officer
We were ushered into the District Officer’s office. The District Officer looked very fearsome with his thick mustache. I did not know the looks of other District Officers as I have not seen any of them. After the formal introductions, my father proceeded to present my case. After hearing our plea, the District Officer was still very adamant that I should enroll next year. Equipped with the advise from Tuan Syed Kassim, my father told the District Officer that he would agree to the suggestion if ever the District Officer would give us the undertaking that I should be accepted into the College for the next year automatically without having to sit for the SMC examination. Since he would not be able to give us the undertaking, the District Officer then agreed to accept me as a Special Malay Class I pupil at the Sultan Abdul Hamid College Primary School for the year 1956.
My Father Unfulfilled Dream
My father was flabbergasted and very exited with the District Officer’s decision. Later on, I came to know that he was very excited because I have managed to fulfill his unfulfilled dream of 1941. My father has passed the Special Malay Class One Entrance Examination in 1940 at Sekolah Melayu Jitra. As the Second World War erupted in 1941, the Japanese put a halt to the schooling sessions in the College. As such he could not make it to the College.
He was instead ordered by the Japanese to continue schooling in Standard V at Sekolah Melayu Jitra. A new subject was introduced that was the Japanese language. As he was quick to adapt into the new environment, my father passed his Teachers’ Training Entrance Examination in 1943. He then proceeded to continue his studies for the Japanese Teacher’s Qualification Training at Istana Pelamin, Alor Setar. After training for three months at the Teachers’ Training Centre, he passed his examination with distinction. My father was then ordered by the Japanese to teach Japanese Language at Sekolah Melayu Jitra. His stint as a Japanese Language Teacher lasted three years that was from 1943 to 1945.
After the Japanese surrender, my father was jobless and continued to tap rubber trees at his village, Kampong Kelubi. He has got to earn a living as he was already a married man. At the end of 1945, my father married my mother, who was his cousin. My father’s marriage was in fact an act of escapism from any forced labour to the Death Railway that might befell him. On the other hand, as a married man after the war, my father could not continue his studies at the College although he was instructed to do so. His classmates, Dato’ Dr. Haji Ahmad Adnan and Tunku Kudin continued their studies at the Special Malay Class One at the SAHC Primary School.
Hostelite
With the District Officer’s decision, we went back to the College and registered my enrolment as a pupil of Special Malay Class One at the SAHC Primary School. The name of SAHC Primary School was changed to Iskandar Primary School after the country achieved independence in 1957. After the registration, we went straight to the College Hostel for another round of registration. I was to be admitted to the Putra Wing of the hostel. My father then brought my belongings to my bed at the first floor of the Putra Wing. He helped me to put up my bed as I did not know how to do it. It was my first experience in sleeping on a single mattress bed.
After giving me some money for my personal use and for the school fees, my father then bade farewell to me and headed straight home to Jeniang. Before parting off, he advised me to study hard to achieve success in pursuing his unfulfilled dream. I shed a few tears as I was only nine years old and was feeling scary because I was lonely without any friend.
In those days, there was no such thing as orientation committee and so on. Ragging were the norms of the day. As a new fresh boarder, I was fooled around when I asked the seniors for direction to the dining hall. Instead of showing me to the proper dining hall, they showed me the quarters of the Hostel Master. Foolishly I entered the quarters with my new friend Ismail Yaacob whose nick name was Pak Choy from Yan. We were very startled and confused as we were then chased out by the ever fierce Mr. Radzi Puteh, the Hostel Master.
Later on in the evening, I met a few friends who hailed from various places in the northern part of Kedah. There were Syed Sheh from Sik, . Ismail Shafie (Pak Kaduk) from Jerlun, the late Abdullah Salleh from Pendang, Abu Bakar Yaacob from Alor Belat, Yahaya Ahmad (Pak Ya Kalut) from Pokok Sena, Shuib Din from Jeram, the late Wahab Musa, the late Mohd. Nor Taib and Halim Mat Ninggal from Tunjang, the late Yusoff Hamid (Little Boy) from Sungai Limau and Shamsuddin Hussein (Din Dongga) from Jitra. After our lunch, the new hostelites were briefed by the Hostel Head Prefect, Hashim bin Wahab who hailed from the Island of Langkawi.
Special Malay Class
Our Special Malay Class One commenced in the afternoon session. Our class was situated at the far end of a single storey school of Sultan Abdul Hamid College Primary School. The school building was located south of the College across the second College playing field. After breakfast and before the class commenced in the afternoon, we had a field day the second College field. As it was a very beautiful field to us from the kampungs, we did really make use of the field to the fullest. Rain or shine, we would always played football on the field before going to the school in the afternoon.
Our class teacher was the late Mr. Omar Kasa while the headmaster was Mr. Lim Swee Hoe.
The first lesson was that we learned in school was that we must always converse only in English from day one in school. Whoever spoke any word other than English at the school, he would be fined $0.10 per word. We were told not to be inferior even if you were from the rural areas. Special Malay Class programs were designed specially for Malay Medium Primary School pupils to pursue their education in the English Medium Schools. We were in fact the chosen ones and we should not put to waste that golden opportunity as well as the hopes of our parents. He then introduced to us our first English text book, “Look and Read”. He even encouraged us to write about daily happenings that we experienced in our diary.
From that day onwards, we try our hearts out to converse in English. During those days, bilingual dictionaries were not available. The only dictionaries available were the English Language Dictionaries and it made us more confusing because of the description of any difficult words were only explained in English.
Lost for words was the phenomena for the day. Once it happened to me when I came late to the school. The reason of my lateness was because the school bus broke down half way on our journey to school. When the teacher asked for my reason in coming late, I was lost for words. My answer was “The bus was dead, Sir”. Amidst the laughter from the whole class yet the teacher let me go without any fine because I have tried my best to speak in English. That was my first dose of learning the foreign language properly.
Kampung Mentality
For some of us, English Education did not mean anything as we still pursued our hobbies even in our different new environment. For my classmate, the late Wahab Musa, he continued his hobby of trapping pigeons or ‘mala kerbau’ birds around the hostel and school compounds. As he was quite a big tough guy, he bullied us the small size boys to search for dragon flies which was the staple food of the birds. Apart from that, we used to play marbles among ourselves and our pockets were always full of marbles. We were also fond of playing cigarette boxes which were designated with certain score numbers.
Wahab Musa
The late Wahab Musa was so consumed with his hobbies that he failed miserably in his Standard Six Examination. When he failed to be promoted to Form One at the College, he went back to Pulau Kechik, Tunjang and helped his mother in tapping rubber trees. His father was an artisan at the District Public Work Department at Jitra. While we were in form three at the College, we were informed that he has got married.
When I was transferred as the District Officer of Kubang Pasu in 1989, my former SMI 1956 classmates assigned me the task of looking for Wahab Musa and subsequently inform them about Wahab Musa’s latest status quo. One fine day, when I arrived at his house with the local Penghulu, Wahab Musa took quite a while to come out from his house. When he did came out, we were totally surprised that our mighty Wahab Musa came out carrying his grand daughter. He looked so docile contrasting to our vision of a big tough bully boy when he was at the College Hostel. Sheepishly he told us that he was baby sitting for his daughter who was teaching.
Apart from his composure, it was not a surprise to me as Wahab Musa was still Wahab Musa, the birdman. His house compound was also full of bird cages of various species. After thirty one years, Wahab Musa was as strong as ever in pursuing his hobbies of birds rearing. We were laughing our hearts out when I told this incidence to our classmates. After my visit to his house , we renewed our acquaintance until his last breath. Three years later, Wahab Musa passed away at his house due to heart failure. When I acquired from the Penghulu about the birds, I was informed that all the birds were disposed of to other bird lovers in the vicinity. May Allah bless his soul.
Other Tunjang Boys
The late of Wahab Musa was a classic example of a personal failure in the fulfilling the objective of the formation of the Special Malay Classes. There were five of us from the Tunjang area i.e. the late Wahab Musa, the late Mohd. Noor Taib, Halim Mat Ninggal, Shuib Din and myself. Halim Mat Ninggal was also a big size boy and we were always his victims. Halim Mat Ninggal continued his secondary school education in the Derma English School, Kangar when he failed to continue his schooling at the College. He then joined the Malaysian Royal Navy. He came to our first reunion lunch 25 years ago at the Alor Setar Rest House wearing a very wide belt. When we enquired him about the big size belt, he told us jokingly that it was for self defense if ever we would retaliate towards him for his bullying days. He was not surprised to see us, his bullying victims were now much bigger than him. He is now suffering from Parkinson disease and resides in his Kuala Kedah home.
Career Development
The late Mohd. Noor Taib, Shuib Din and myself continued our secondary education at the College. Shuib Din is now the Professor of Psychology at Sabah University. The late Mohd. Noor Taib became a teacher but unfortunately he passed away at quite an early age because of kidney failure. When we heard about his kidney ailment , our SMI 1956 classmates passed the hat around for the purpose of buying a homeo dialysis machine. At that time, the dialysis machine was not available at the Alor Setar General Hospita. Unfortunately for us, Mohd. Noor Taib passed away prematurely just as we have collected enough money to buy the dialysis machine for him.
Apart from the late Wahab Musa, all our former SMI 1956 classmates did not go back to the kampungs even after their failure to continue their secondary education at the College. In those days, the entry qualification for any post as an office boy or its equivalents at any Government offices was only a pass in standard six. From there, you could move up the ladder to become a clerk if you have a pass in Lower Certificate of Education Examination. Even with a Lower Certificate of Education Examination, you could still become a teacher by entering the Day Training Centre institutes. One of our classmates, Haji Muhammad Endut was a graduate of the DTC which was in the College compound. He has a successful career as a teacher and he has retired as a Primary School Headmaster in Pokok Sena.
We were very thankful indeed for the Special Malay Classes programs as we were exposed to the new world of English Education that have successfully carved out our career development. Occasionally, we used to organize gatherings of our SMI 1956 surviving classmates whereby each gathering was a very interesting and a very hilarious affair.
No comments:
Post a Comment