My Schooldays 1967-1968

I have delayed writing this post due to my inability to find out the name of my form teacher during my fourth form in 1967. Non of us could remember with everybody saying it was more than forty years ago and some claiming senility as an excuse. What is wrong with us that we cant even recall who our form teacher was after benefiting from his/her guidance while in school?

Actually what happened was our first form teacher in form four, a Puan Rahmah Ariffin had to be retired on medical ground. Her place was taken over by another teacher which non of us could recall for sure. It was also due to the short duration before school ends for the year that the other teacher took over. The teacher who took over didn't have much time with us to leave much impression on us as even the best brain in the class the likes of Major (R) Chong Chow Kar(Civil Engineer), Zainal Abidin Hussein(Electrical Engineer), Lim Siong Peek, Azmy Omar, Ibrahim Hussein, Ab. Rahman Ismail (Graduate Teachers), Napsah Mahmud (Administrator), Ghani Senik (Food Technologist), Ashaari Amin (Reseacher) and most others that I called can't remember. Can't blame them as like me, all of them are approaching 60 in one or two years time. Above all they may have overworked their brain so much that most of the remaining cells in their grey matter are useless already. Well even my own brain which is rarely used can't recall so no big deal OK?
Anyway Puan Rahmah Ariffin left a big impression on me. I am truly indebted to this lady. She was instrumental in getting me a Federal Minor scholarship which I received during the second half of the year in 1967. That scholarship entails me to a RM20.00 monthly allowance for the rest of my schooling days till end of 1968. It was timely as after my half brother got married and has his own family to look after he ceased to provide me with the same amount monthly.

I can still visualize the day when Puan Rahmah came to me in class with a form to apply for a scholarship which I had to fill in immediately, get it signed by my father and certified by the Penggawa (Headman) of my mukim (area). That task was no small feat for me. For one my father was living some 10 miles away in my village and it will mean a bus fare of 50 sen return. A big amount of money then.

Somehow I managed to return home only to find that father was miles away tending to the family's rubber small holding. The place was unknown to me and he will only be back by nightfall and by then the Penggawa's office would be closed. Though the Penggawa was related to me, he refused to sign it before my father put his thumb print first, saying that signing blind wasn't the right thing to do. I had to wait for my father to come back that night and get the Penggawa to witness my father's signature the next day.

My dad had to leave for the rubber small holding before daylight so I had to get his thumb print that night. It would be interesting to note how ingenious we were then as there was no inkpad whatsoever for my father to ink his thumb with. Since I had once seen other people inking their thumb using a piece of daun sireh (arecapiper) applied with a thin layer of cooking oil and exposing the oiled surface to the soot of the kerosine lamp, I decided to do the same. Presto, we had a perfect thumb print of my father's right thumb and it was countersigned by the Penggawa the next day. He testified that my father's income was no more than RM70.00 per month. I still believed that we were not far off from that figure then as the rubber small holding was still young and untappable. We lived a subsistence life by eating the rice from our own plot of padi land and on vegetables that mother planted. Our family's cash income came from the sale of 'tembakau darat' a form of local tobacco for use with palm leaf ciggarettes.
I came late to school the next day to submit the duly completed scholarship application form as my mum had to find RM3.00 to pay for my fare back to Pasir Mas and the extra will be some pocket money.
Puan Rahmah believed my explanation of why I was late.

Out of the forty pupils in my class, I was the only one given the form. How did she picked me out to be the lucky pupil? My guess was my earlier meeting with the Senior School Assistant, En. Ab.Rahman Ali to decline my appointment to the school prefect board. (En. Rahman Ali later became the Kelantan State Education Director before being transfered to Negeri Sembilan and later promoted to the post of Director of one of the departments in the Ministry of Education). I cited the inability to buy a pair of white pants which was the uniform for prefects then. En. Rahman assured me that he will look into my problem. Later he sent me to Kuan Sin Tailor in town to have my uniform measured and tailored. The two white trousers cost a total of RM40.00, a big sum by my standard.

The tailor shop remains the same till today when I went to photograpgh it.


Mr. Eng Fook Seng is now 66 years old so he must be 25 years old when he did my trousers. He said the same trousers would cost RM60.00 if he were to do it now. My neighbour Abang Lah who is his regular customer came to the shop while I was there.

It was not long after that Puan Rahmah suffered a mental disorder and she was retired on that ground. Our class was without a form teacher for quite a while. Some of us said that a Peace Corp volunteer by the name of Mr. Gerald Bax who took over from her while Ashaari Amin was later steadfast in his belief that it was our Mr. Loo Hock Guan that took over. Till this day nobody can say for sure who was our form teacher after Puan Rahmah.
Since in 1967, the teacher's union had a boycot of all extra curricular activities, there was no production of the school magazine for that year on which we could have fallen on as record.

I remember buying a pair of ready made black pant and a tailor made shirt from the first RM120 backdated scholarship. It was so much money for someone who dont even have RM5.00 to his name. For the first time in my life I made a purchase of a pair of 'Obermain' leather shoes from Golok which cost me RM12.00.Those clothes enable me to once again go out to town to meet my friends. I ceased to go out to town when a friend chided me for wearing the white school pants whenever I went out. Well that was all that I have got. Any outing activities organized by my class was off limit to me.

Form four was then considered as a honeymoon year as we will only be facing the School Certificate of Examination and the Malaysian Certificate of Examination in form five. These exams are really the same exam as the former can only be achieved if you obtain a pass in the English subject.
Some of the teachers who taught us then were Mr. Loo Hock Guan who taught us English, Puan Zaharah Zohdan who taught us Arts, Mr. Pang Chok Chu who taught us physics, Mr. Toh Kin Woon (Datuk Dr) taught us biology and chemistry, Mr. Mark Anthony taught us woodworking while Mr. Anandan took care of those who opt for metalwork. Mr. Thanda taught us English literature and till this day, I can still remember the story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Can't recall much about the rest of the teachers.
With the boycot by the teachers, 1967 was an uneventful year.

Yours truly is standing second from right. The other male prefect standing on the left is the late Rahim Jusoh who passed away recently due to colon cancer. He is survived by 3 wives and a number of children. You see we don't have a teacher in our class photograph.

The Prefect board of 1967 with the the late Mr. Yusoff Ghouse in the dark suit while the Senior Assistant En. Rahman Ali flanked the head boy Shaari Yahya fourth from right. Can you spot your's truly? He is standing behind Datuk Mustapha Muhamad the present Agriculture Minister, that is if you can recognize him.

1968 was the evenful year. With the teacher's Union problem resolved with the Ministry of Education, extra curricular activities seemed to be carried out with a vengeance. School societies were so active that every nook and corner of the school was used for activities. Even the school canteen, hostel's dining room and shade trees was not spared. The school had a double session then and without a hall, the teachers were at their wits end trying to hold activities for the societies they were in charge of.

The Class of 68 with our teachers. The form teacher was Miss Wong An Yin later Mrs. Foo Say Ghee but she remains Miss Wong to us.
Sitting: En. Ismail Mat (BM), Ustaz Nawi (Ugama) Mr. Thanda, Mr. Gerald Bax (Peace Corp) Miss Wong Ann Yin (Geography), the class monitor Mahmud Awang Kechik (Datuk Dr) Mr Pang Chok Chu (Physics) Chegu Shukri, Mr. Loo Hock Guan (English and English Literature). Yours truly is standing behind Mr. Thanda. Not in the picture is Mr. Toh Kin Woon (Datuk Dr.) who taught us Biology and Chemistry.
1968 was a significant year as this year the sixth form Malay Medium classes was started. This year the baton of the headboy was passed to the sixth form student by the name Ismail Yusoff (Dato').

The Prefect Board of 1968 with the School Board of Directors and the Honourable Minister of Education, the late Tun Khir Johari. Yours truly is the first from left in the middle row.

The late Mr. Yusoff Ghouse was our Head Master then and he was a man who made the teachers payback what they missed doing in 1967. To cap the year we had the sports day and the School Exhibiton day. The exhibition day's opening ceremony was done by the Honourable Education Minister himself. Can you guess who? The Minister was a close friend of our Head Master and hailed from Penang. He was the late En. Khir Johari (Tun).


Yours truly dressed to kill in his tailor made shirt, Obermain shoes (made in Thailand) bought with the scholarship money, white school pants (made by Kuan Sin Tailor and paid by the Parent Teachers Association fund) posing with his close friend Azmy Omar in front of the old main market. On the site of the old market is the Bangunan Serakai Mas built after the old market was gutted down by fire.
The final event of the year was the inter house debate. The final was between the Yellow House represented by Chong Chow Kar (Major Retired), Rohani Ibrahim (Dr) and another debator whom nobody could remember.
Yours truly was the proposer representing the Blue House and seconded by Alexander Chan and another third speaker which nobody can confirm but I vaguely remember a soft spoken Wee Mek Chu who could be the third speaker.
Mr. Loo Hock Guan the English teacher chaired the debate.
What about the topic? I would say the topic is pretty sensitive by today's standard.
"Houses Of Worships Are A Waste of Money". Would any teacher dare to suggest such a topic for students to debates nowadays? Well the debate went well and the students came in full force to witness the great debate. They stood there till the result came out.
Forty years later I called Major(R) Chong Chow Kar who led the oppositon team and asked him if he remembers anything about the debate. He said he can't remember much.He even enquired as to which team won the debate. He forgot that the team led by him won the debate.
1968 was memorable in that I met my future life partner. She was a newcomer to my school when she joined the form four class at Sultan Ibrahim School. She ramains my partner till this day after we got married in 1973 when I was 23 and she was 21.