Memories of Form 1 (1956) at S.M.I. Ipoh.
It was something totally unplanned and unexpected that I had my secondary education at SMI Ipoh. At the end of Std. 6 in 1955 at the Govt. English School Tronoh, my classmates and I had to sit for the public examination (precursor of present-day UPSR) that was introduced for the first time by the government. The boys who passed the exam. were directed by the Perak State Education Dept. to enroll at SMI Ipoh. (Note: I think the girls were sent to study in Batu Gajah.) This was a surprise because in the past parents had the discretion to apply to any school of their choice which was usually Anderson School Ipoh for boys or Sultan Yusof School Batu Gajah.
So in January 1956 I joined SMI with Cheah Weng Hay, Choong Mun Khoon, Ho Yin Sum, Ho Yuen Pun, Lau Seng Kiong, Loh Kong Poi, Ng Har, Soo Kung Cheong and Tham Ah Kow (as far as I can remember).
I was put in Form 1 D while my other Tronoh boys were in A, B or C classes. I must confess initially it was a bit demoralizing to be in the “D” class, as generally in most schools the best students were streamed for the “A” or “B” classes. Anyway I soon got used to it and made many friends such as Soo Kam Chiew, Lee Yee Fong, Ooi Eng Aun, Arjun Mall and others.
The Form 1 “C” and “D” classes were in the wooden shed behind the mosque, with the school canteen there as well. My Form teacher was Master Chan Soo Kean who taught nearly all the subjects including Moral. Bro. Michael taught us Hygiene while Master Kee Ying Wah taught Science.
Coming from a small town govt. school it was something like a minor cultural shock and I had to adjust quickly to the new environment at this missionary school. For the first time in my life I saw the La Salle Brothers as teachers in white robes. Lessons began every morning with Moral (a.k.a Catechism) when we had to memorise a set of Questions & Answers from the Catechism book and recite them if and when called up by the teacher, failing which the student will be meted out with a punishment (a.k.a. penance) to write the particular Q & A a set number of times (usually 20 – 30 ).
Another thing new to me was the Weekly Report Card. Every week the Form teacher would record the grade of the student’s conduct and the test marks of any subject(s) held during that week. It would be given to the student on Friday for his parent/guardian to sign and then return it the following Monday. Once in a while the Bro. Director would come and inspect the cards randomly and students with poor grades (red marks) would be hauled up and even caned sometimes.
During that year the government announced that Bahasa Melayu would soon be a compulsory subject to be taught in all schools although it was not compulsory yet till some years later. Poor me! I had never learned Malay before and could hardly speak even simple bazaar Malay. We were offered Malay tuition by a private tutor once a week in the afternoon in school. I can remember the embarrassment I felt when the young “Che’gu” asked me “Apa nama kamu?” and I did not know how to answer at that time. After that I decided that I had to work hard to study Malay so as not to be left behind. I did that by buying some Malay books and an English-Malay/ Malay-English by R.O. Winsteadt and studied on my own frequently referring to the dictionary..
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