“ …..In life, many things are destined to happen the way he deems appropriate. One can try his or her level best to influence the end result, but until the scenes unfold one by one, one never can tell for sure the eventual outcome………. “
5th May 1970 was destined to be the day that changed my life. For, on this day, I boarded a plane in Penang for Sabah to take up a teaching post with St Paul's Secondary School, Beaufort.
A month before, I had attended an interview in Penang. The then principal, Father Hurford, had come to Penang to get to know two potential candidates. As it turned out, both short-listed candidates did not show up. I did not write in for the post advertised by the school earlier. I had gone there to meet Father Hurford because my friend WH Wong had a change of mind after getting admission to a teacher training college. So there I was, introducing myself to the principal. I took up this suggestion to try for the job as I was then still waiting for the result of my application to join the University of Malaya (MU). Two weeks after the interview, I received a letter from Father Hurford, informing me that I had been selected to teach. I had a hard choice to make, for, in the mean time, I also received a letter from MU that I was given a place in the science course.
Studying overseas was out of the question. My parent had 8 children, I was the second eldest. Two years earlier, my older brother had followed and worked in a circus group around the region and he's stuck with it.The annual tuition fees in MU was going to be RM 5,000. Lodging and other living expenses would be another RM 200. That's a basic RM 600 per month. I discussed the matter with my parents. They told me they could not afford it. That seemed to settle the issue. I quickly went to apply for a passport the next day. I needed one to get into Sabah - 'the Land below the Wind' After which, I sent a telegram to Father Hurford to let him know I accepted his offer. Father Hurford also mentioned that I was to enter Sabah on a social visit pass, and then apply to the immigration department in Beaufort later, since the school had already obtained approval in principle from the immigration department.
Father Hurford |
I arrived at Kota Kinabalu (KK) in the afternoon. I could not see very much of the town from the air as it was raining cats and dogs during the approach. Immigration procedure was simple and quick. As I came out of the arrival hall and looking for Father Hurford, Father Briggs came forward to ask for my name. He apologized that Father Hurford could not make it to KK that day but would be coming the next day. I was to put up the night at the office quarter of the diocese of the Anglican Church in KK. I had not had good sleep the previous night. So I straight away went for a nap after Father Briggs left to tend to his work. I only woke up 3 hours later. Father Briggs had by then left for his residence, but he informed his lady assistant to take me out for dinner that night.
Beaufort is an interior town, about 90 km to the south of Kota Kinabalu - KK's old name was Api-Api. The locals seemed to prefer the shorter name. The only road to Beaufort was of gravel, which was maintained by the state Public Works Department. It was not an all weather road at the time. One needed to check with the PWD to find out whether the road condition on that day was fine for otherwise. The majority use the diesel powered train to ply between Kota Kinabalu and Beaufort, including Tenom a little further. The third mode of transport was the rail-car, a 6-seater car that runs on the same railway track.
There were a number of curves and when the rail-car negotiate these curves, I could feel the car simply swinging from one side to the other, the screeching sound of the wheel gave me some hair raising feeling. I clung to the side window sill, hoping this would prevent me from being thrown out of my seat. Father Hurford was sitting in the other corner on the same row. Twice, he turned to me and asked "are you alright?". I managed a broad grin to acknowledge his concern, and said I was OK. Deep down though, I wasn't feeling that comfortable. After passing Putatan, Kinarut and Kawang, we arrived at Papar. the next big town along the way. I could see Papar was a place with a bit of old charm, with a number of churches, their spire projecting high. Kota Kinabalu was, and still is the largest town in Sabah. Still, the atmosphere one could feel was one of slow pace of life. With Papar, life seemed to be even slower. May be it was still early for people to get to the station for the next train.
The rail-car only stopped for about 10 minutes, basically to upload 2 more passengers and to wait for the opposing train to pass. After Papar, it was non-stop through Kimanis, Bongawan, Membakut, and Lumat before getting into Beaufort. As the rail-car sped through the Borneo jungles at certain stretches, we caught glimpses of orang-utan and monkeys.The weather had been good, shining brightly when we rode through seasides after Papar. I had to cover my head with another shirt as the evening sun was giving my left cheek some burning sensation.
Sabah's old name was North Borneo. Access to the interior of Sabah had been difficult due to the high mountains - the Crocker Range - that block the western plain from the eastern part of the state. At 13,455 ft., Mt. Kinabalu is the highest peak in Malaysia and also South East Asia. It was strange that I did not go climb Mt Kinabalu then but came back more that 30 years later with my family to do it. Because of this range of mountain that stretch parallel to the coastline from the north to the south of Sabah, the interior part of the state had been lagging behind in terms of development. I was wondering at that time what kind of place could be for Keningau, or Tenom, and the like in the interior, looking at some of the one-street towns that the rail-car passed through. It was to be a surprise to me later when I visited Keningau and Kuala Penyu, thanks largely to the hardy Landrovers that frequent the Beaufort roads. I shall also share with you my experience of having crocodile meat at one of my student's house in Kuala Penyu. Suffice to say for the moment that it tastes like chicken.
At about 5.30 pm, the rail-car finally pulled into the Beaufort Station. As I stepped onto the platform, I took a quick glance of the whole place. It was not much different from what I have seen in Papar, and Tanjung Aru, a basic brick and timber utility station enough for the sparse daily traffic. Father Hurford went out of the station to bring his car to the front. It was a Volkswagon. I got in with my luggage on my lap and we headed for the school. As the car turned out to the main local road, I noticed two rows of timber shops perched on top of concrete stilts.
There was a flight of about 15 concrete steps to the front. From the side of one of the rows, I also noticed two small boats tied to one of the pillars. It did not immediately occur to me then that these were sure signs of a flood prune area, for I was pre-occupied with where I was to put up. The local main road was a two lane thorough-fair, good enough to speed at 60 kph. in both directions, though there was no white separation lines in the middle, opposing vehicles seemed to be well behaved.
It took less than 10 minutes to reach the school. Having had a glimpse of the school while getting into the town, I was expecting to see only a few classrooms with extra rooms for experimenting with science subjects. After all, Father Hurford had told me at the interview that the enrolment of the school was around 500 pupils. The Volkswagon went straight into the school compound, and stopped in front of one block of two story building. It was the boarding house. A few pupils were sitting at the step of the entrance, but came forward to offer to carry my suitcase.
We went upstairs. At the corner of the boarding house upstairs overlooking the entrance was a suite, complete with a lounge, bedroom, and attached bathroom. After opening the front door, the assistant boarding house captain, Gan Seng Chu, handed me the keys. The room was neat and tidy, obviously well prepared for my stay. I learned later that the former boarding house master, Mr Chin, used to stay in it, but had left the school since to further his studies. During his tenure, he had been very strict with the boarders. I was not told then that I was to assume that post until about two months later. But my first impression with the boarders seemed to be good. Credit must be given to Father Hurford for good disciplines among the boarders.
I
tried to put all of my personal belongings in order, and then went for a shower
after everybody had left. That night, I joined the boarders in having dinner at
the main dinning hall downstairs. It was simple but good. Together at the table
was Mr Lee, who taught at the primary school, and Cik'gu Wan Sham. Wan Sham was
a very jovial person. I shall talk more about him later. Lee left St Paul's
Primary School end of 1970 to return to Penang.
Going To School, Again
That night I sat down to write a letter back home to my parents as I am sure
they would be quite eager to learn of my well being. It was a good thing I
brought some envelopes along. Before I went to bed, I made sure my alarm clock
was working.Some how, I slept well that night. After having some light
breakfast prepared by the boarders, I walked to the staff room. As expected, a
lot of eyes were on me. A brief self introduction told me that most teachers
came from outside Sabah.
The school bell rang loud and clear at 7.30 AM. I followed my new colleagues to
the Monday assembly ground. In front of all the students, Father Hurford
introduced me. There was a moment of murmur. Everybody turned to my direction.
Then someone started to clap his hands. The rest then followed. I waved back to
acknowledge their enthusiastic welcoming gesture.
The
assembly was over in 20 minutes. Most of the teachers proceeded to their
respective classes, and I made my way back together with Father Hurford to his
office. Pointing to the time table on the wall, he asked me to take over an
English lesson class for Form 2A, and a Form Remove class - if I can still
recall, it was Remove B. The English class is to begin just before break. I had
some time to consult Father Hurford for some teaching material.
English grammar had been my favourite topic. I loved it not because it's easy,
but because I could easily copy my former English teacher's way of presenting
grammar as a living subject. My first teaching session went on well. The
students were generally quiet type, but they did well to partake in my lesson.
Father Hurford came to my class mid-way, unannounced, to observe how I was
doing. He did not stay long though. I felt a bit nervous with somebody
literally 'checking every minute' of my work. I think my students sensed it
when they saw me glancing at Father Hurford several times. It was my first
teaching experience. I wouldn't know how and what Father Hurford had in mind
during and after that lesson. What was my score on his card? Did I fare well? I
consoled myself that I did not do badly. The class responded well, could
understand what I was trying to say. But then again, it was Form 2A, not 2F.
Father Hurford never said a thing to me once. In retrospect, I wished he had.
Then I do not have to guess, till this day. It did not occur to me that I
should ask him instead. May be I should have, may be, may be. I really do not
have an answer.
As I walked into Form 2A classroom, all the students stood up and said,
"Good morning Mr Leow". This was something quite different from my
own school where we always greeted man teachers as "Sir". I then
followed with "Good morning class. Please sit down." I told them I
came from Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia. Some gave me blank look. So I drew a
simple map. Form 2A was quite a class, with all girls sitting in front and boys
at the back. I was later to learn that the age difference between the youngest
and the oldest in the same class is 3 years. No wonder a few were taller than
me. But that did not mean the younger ones were any less smarter. One girl
sitting in front was barely 4 feet tall. She was able to give me all correct
answer every time.I studied in a Chinese language primary school. Believe me,
most of us who were to join an English secondary school later scored high marks
for English grammar. Most of Form 2A students came from Chinese medium primary
school. They could not speak as fluently as those from purely English medium
school due to lack of practice. So I tried to get them to think and converse in
English every time I had English classes with them.
The boarding house duty for each student was very well organised and everybody
knew exactly what was expected of them to perform each morning and the evening,
thanks to the efficient Demson Tom, boarding house captain for that year.
Demson was also the school captain. I was also to teach English to Form Remove
B too. That was the last period of my first day in St Paul's. This was a big
class of 43 students, I remember. While walking to the class, I could hear
their noise from afar. It's a vast difference from 2A.
Remove B students all came from rural areas. English was their weakest subject. There weren't any workbook for practice apart from those in the class. That meant improvising quite a bit of home work for them, and a lot of one to one counseling in the class to the very weak ones.
Life in the Boarding
House
The boarding house is a two storey structure with two blocks of it joined by a
central staircase, and an air well. It's a simple building to house about 40
students from outstation. The inmates came as far as Kuala Penyu, Keningau, and
Sipitang.
Those days, the only road linking Beaufort and other towns in the interior and
the west coast of Sabah was a gravel road. It stretched as far as Kuala Penyu
and Keningau. Even then only land rovers were able to ply on them. So a
boarding house for these students had made their lives so much easier. It was a
few months later that I had the opportunity to go on that road to Kota Kinabalu
with Father Hurford, in his ever dependable Volkswagon. I shall have more on
that journey later.
The boarders used the shower facilities from the school wash room, so it became
part of their duty to clean it up every morning before the other students came
in. I was quite amazed that they have been doing it so well for a very long
time.As the new boarding house master, I was entrusted with the money for daily
marketing purchases. They take turns to go to the market in the early morning,
a mere 15 minutes walk. Being local produces, daily purchases were cheap. The
boarders got to get meat daily, and fish almost on alternate days. The usual
combination was 2 vegetables with a meat. Sometimes there was soup.I took the
same thing the boarders took. With the good cook the boarding house has, I
could not complain at all. She was good at it. Wan Sam, a Malay teacher from
the Peninsular, was more discerning in taste. He could not go without curry.
So, he often put in his own extra ingredients to make his stuff hot and spicy.
I don't fancy spicy food, but I did get to taste one of his great cooking, very
appetizing indeed.
Wan Sam was a great singer too. One of his favourite
tunes was from P Ramlee. You could hear that during his cooking time. It was
amusing to watch him. Boarders liked him because he was approachable, takes
everybody as his friend. I learned that he had arrived just a month earlier
than I did. He stayed on however, longer than I did. Each time it floods, he
will pack his bag and go to the students' dormitory to sleep a night with his
students. This yearly flood must have been a part of the lives of all Beaufort
residents. They can't escape from it.
Apart for Wan Sam, there was another teacher Mr Chung staying in the teachers'
quarter. He liked to play his gramophone loudly so all of us could also enjoy
the music. Guess what, I was so 'infected' by his favourite oldies. “Quando, Quando, Quando” by Engelbert
Humperdinck, I can still 'feel' the song ringing in my ears. Nowadays I would
make sure I get a ticket to attend any concert by the great singer at Genting
Highland, whenever he's in Malaysia. Make no mistake, I don't just like oldies,
I also listen to Maroon 5, Carrie Underwood, and such like. A superstar is a
superstar, whatever their era. They are always captivating.
The Beaufort market is a stone's throw from the school. I normally would take an evening walk everyday to the market to see what they have on offer. During the weekend, the surrounding areas would become very lively because of the 'Tamu', the local word for weekend market. It's time for the rural folks to bring their produces from their farms in the interiors to the towns. The things on offer are basically agricultural products, less of handicrafts,which I had wanted to see. I did get a musical instrument which is of Kadazan origin. It's a 30 cm long gourd with a long hollowed out stem, and additional hollow bamboo sticks added to make it into a wind pipe instrument. I paid RM5 for it.
On a Mission, for my
Future
My mission there in Beaufort was to save sufficient money for my future
university education. I had given myself not more than 4 years, hopefully less
than three. My initial salary was RM180 per month. This was increased to RM250
after presenting my original Higher School Certificate (HSC) to the authority.
Based on inflation rate of 3% p.a, that's equivalent to RM2,000 today. Not bad,
considering that an hons.graduate teacher with diploma in education started
with RM600.I managed to save RM200 per month initially because the school provided
everything else. I reckoned then that if I could continue to save this amount
every month, I should have a good chance of getting into a local university
after three years. However, my hope was temporarily dented with the departure
of Father Hurford. I stopped taking food from the hostel, when I had to pay for
it after his departure.
St Pauls' Secondary School, being a mission school, had to find half its own
yearly funding by going to the public for donation. This came in some form in
advertisement in the school magazine. But, over the years, it's been getting
more difficult to solicit funds. So there was a need to cut expenses. I could
understand why the new principal needed to cut those perks given to us earlier.
Few wanted to come to Sabah to work, much less as a teacher. So the school had
to give some extras to attract new teachers from West Malaysia. There simply
weren't enough from Sabah itself. But, when more came to work in Sabah the
following years, things began to change. The amount I could save dwindled to
RM120 per month, when we moved out to stay at the former house occupied by Mr P
S Bell. Three of us West Malaysia teachers, started to pay a nominal rental of
RM30 per month each to the Diocese of the Anglican Church, which owned the
house. We then started to cook our own food.
The year 1970 was memorable in that a number of teachers came and went away. I
also saw the departure of Father Hurford. The students organised a farewell
party for him. Father Hurford could dance well. He did a few numbers with some
girls students and Jenny Bell, one of the teachers. Musical band for the night
came from the students themselves. I can still recall one of my favourite songs
of the night, “ Kembalilah Sayang”. That night I did not know how I could sing
the 'Smile'. It was Jenny who insisted I do, saying I only need to follow the
tune of 'Auld Lang Syne'. It really was all smiles when I finished. To this
day, I can still vividly remember the whole lyrics.
The year 1971 also saw the departure of Mr PS Bell and his daughter
Jennie. Mr Bell used to teach science subjects while Jennie taught English. The
whole family left for England. The house they vacated was later to become our
teachers' quarter.
The Teachers' Quarter
The house was of Malay style, built on stilts. There was one master bedroom and
2 more rooms for 3 of us Malaysian teachers. The front veranda is a specious
open lounge with comfortable rattan furniture. The kitchen, bathroom and toilet
facilities are attached to the rear of the house, with steps down from the
connecting corridor to the rooms. The walls were all of timber planks and roof
of zinc. With the hot sun in Beaufort most of the day, the roof would prove to
be a bit more uncomfortable, even though there were asbestos board ceiling.
Luckily, the house was at the foot of a hill lock. It largely shielded us from
the evening sun.
The
relationship amongst the teaching staffs, were always cordial. We tried to help
in whatever way we could to put the school on better footing; Those days, the
arrangement of time table was a big jigsaw puzzle. We did not have any
computer, nor any program that we could use to juggle any changes to meet
departing staff. What we had accustomed to was to juggle over a hundred
coloured acrylic tiles on a big board. Each of the coloured tiles would
represent a certain staff with his/her subject name taped on. The colour
difference let us know at a glance whether a certain staff had been double
tagged at the same time slot, or have more than his/her fair share of subjects.
The beginning of 1972 saw the largest staff movement. About half of the
staff are new. So, instead of just filling the blanks, we found it more
practical to take down all the existing tiles and do a completely new one, even
though the subjects taught by existing teachers remain almost the same. This
was to take us more than a day to complete.
The beginning of a school year has always kept us busy, not only to deal with
the new time table, but also getting info on the number of new text books to
purchase. We had to make bulk order from Kota Kinabalu and we did not want to
order too many or too few. It's a tough job assigned to me by the principal.
Luckily I did not have to do the bulk purchase but merely in charge of retail
sales from teachers. All the orders have to be made thro' the form teachers as
we could not handle any individual purchase from students. We had space
constraint.
All the teachers' book orders were made with 2 copies of sales request. One
teacher was not pleased that she had to write the order twice, but she
understood the reason and co-operated; The school did not have any photocopy
machine, for one such machine would have cost the school over RM8,000, not to
mention about the expensive refill cartridge and photocopy paper. Just like all
the regular tests in class, the sales order forms were cyclostyled on the
Gestetner duplicating machine. The thick and rough cyclostyled paper was not
suitable for carbon copying. Nevertheless, the whole process was completed
smoothly and we sold almost all the books we purchased from bulk supplier.
The duplicating machine was mechanically operated - it could also be run on
auto electric mode, and gave no problems even with prolonged and heavy usages.
Before one can cyclostyle anything, one must prepare the negative print on a
stencil (cut a stencil). The mechanical type writer we had was perfect to do
the job, and that's where I polished up my type-writing skill.
The Teaching of Mathematics and Additional
Mathematics
As someone schooled in a science stream all through
my life, and having taken pure and applied maths as major subjects in form six,
it was natural that I was to be teaching maths subjects in St Paul's Secondary
School.
Unlike economics, mathematics is an exact science.
The latter deals with numbers and measurements. In lower forms, the maths
taught therein were elementary. It was meant to prepare students to be able to
count and also be able to attach values to the things they see everyday. In
other words, to have a rudimentary concept of numbers.
I found that even during my school days, there
existed a big gap between the maths of form 3 and 4. This was brought about by
the introduction of new formula and theorems in the form 4 syllabus. The
mathematics syllabus of St Paul's was no different, with a big twist. My former
school, being a large school, have a more distinct separation of students into
science and arts streams. So, for a class like form 5A, the differential
understanding of the subject of maths was not as marked as in St Paul's. This
presented some difficulties in teaching – how to reconcile the weak with those
fast learners?
In the psychology of teaching, it was recommended
that a teacher should classify the class into 3 categories: the best, the
average and the weak. But when one is new to the class, it takes time to find
out who are in which categories, either through written test, or observing
their reactions to certain questions. Since mathematics is an exact science, it
would seem that a subjective test would reveal more info of their
understanding, judging by the way they posted their step by step answers.
1972- The Year of Rapid Changes
The beginning of 1972 saw a number of young West Malaysian teachers joining us
as temporary staffs. Among them were Dhana Palan, Yew Choo Khan, Liew Kai
Sun and Lim Kar Kheng. Kar Kheng told me he hoped to pursue a law degree
in 6 month's time. That was January '72. By the time I left, he
was still happily teaching.
The teachers' salary then was low compared to other professions. It could
be the reason very few would like to take it up as permanent job. After Sabah
joined as part of Malaysia, the whole package was revamped to make it
more attractive and to be in line with the rising cost of
living. That revision was undertaken by a committee headed by
En Abdul Aziz and presented to the government in 1971 for adoption. As a
result of the revision I got a windfall of a few thousand Ringgit which was
sent to my home town by the school. This windfall actually
helped to lessen my financial burden while pursuing a course in architecture in
the famed Sir J.J College of Architecture. The college's
syllabus was modeled after the requirement of the R.I.B.A (Royal Institute of
British Architects)
Teachers in West Malaysia come under the civil service umbrella.
They get pension after retirement at 55. However, in Sabah then, I was to
contribute to a teachers' superannuation scheme. The school made a
deduction every month and remitted it to the scheme, whose main office was in
Kota Kinabalu. It was a sort of Employee Provident Fund.
A year after I left Sabah, i wrote to them to ask for refund for my
contribution. They wrote back to say that I could not get any
back as my stay in Sabah was a few days short of two years. Gosh. I
had not followed up on the matter again after that, and I am not sure whether
the scheme still exists today.
My Departure from Beaufort and Sabah
I went to Beaufort with a clear vision and mission,
and I steadfastly adhered to that path. So when the time came for
me to leave, it was a bitter sweet feeling. Bitter, because I had come
to love the school, its students, my colleagues and the small town environment.
I had kind of got used to living that life. Sweet because I
was at last on the way to realizing my dream of a tertiary education, never
mind that it's not an Ivy League college or university. I was thinking
then, had God finally answered my prayer, after He failed me the last
time?
During the two years in Sabah, the communication mode between KK and Beaufort
remained the same. So, I was to take the same train to KK, before flying back
to my home town Alor Setar, via Penang.
That morning, almost all my form Three A students came to bid me
farewell. I also saw some of the boarders at the Beaufort
station. It did not take long for the home journey to
start. As the train slowly picked up speed, I waved wildly to my
students. Reluctance to leave was written all over my face. It was a coincidence that one of my students, Doris Pang also
boarded the same train to KK, then to England to take up a course in
nursing. Her parents and I saw her off at the KK airport, before I
boarded my flight later that evening.
In life, many things are destined to happen the way He deems appropriate.
One can try his or her level best to influence the end result, but until
the scenes unfold one by one, one never can tell for sure the eventual outcome.
Bye-bye Beaufort for now. I shall return one day, I promise……
That was 04 June 1972 .