School Life in St Paul’s during the 90s..

 Studying in St Paul’s School from 1988-1994 was the most memorable period of my life. Today, after leaving St Paul’s 16 years ago,I have a good opportunity to recall these wonderful reminiscences.

I hailed from Kg Padas Valley or “Api Chai” in Hakka. The distant of my house to the school was about 4 km. School days was a routine like each morning, I would have to wake up very early, around 5.30 am to get myself ready together with my other siblings. Life was poor for us those days. My mother had to wake up much earlier to prepare breakfast for all. 

My father was a truck operator and each morning when he leaves for work, all his children would have to ‘tumpang’ on his 6-ton truck to the school. The journey was about 30 minutes on the then dusty gravel road bouncing up and down on potholes b4 approaching the famous Beaufort Bailey Bridge that spanned across to the town and finally to the school.

As a student in St Paul’s, Iife was enjoyable as I have a group of pleasant classmates and most of them were classmates since Bridge Class to Form 5. In the primary, I actually came from Kung Ming School. Thus, The bond and relationship cultivated amongst us in the secondary were even stronger.  Indeed that was the motivation of going to school every day.   

In school, I involved very much in co-curricular activities. I was a member of the Leo club and it was here in the club that I learnt how to be an effective leader, how to work independently, and how to organize projects and achieving it. Besides, I was also a member of the Ping-Pong Club and a keen player. Owing to my love for the sport, an opportunity was given to me to join the School team and we participated in various competitions. In records, our team managed to maintain the Championship Cup for 3 consecutive years. The cup was still kept at bay in the school as at today. Indeed, It was proud to be part of the victorious team. On top of Ping Pong, I was also active in sports like Basketball and ever represented St Paul’s team in many competitions but we have never won any good championships except for 1st runner up. Apart from that, I was also a member of the Chinese Association and a committee member.

In the mid-90s, Internet was just launched but we never have an idea what it was about. Computers were available but for me I could never afford to have one. On our studies, we have to depend a lot from our teachers to give us notes and guidance as to face an examination. Of course, on our part, we took our initiatives to go to the school and public library to get more references on our various subjects. The Public library was our fond place to go. It was located at the 1st floor of Lo Chung Park and was always full of students from various schools in the Beaufort district.

Normally, after school hours, several from our batch mostly boys would return to the school as if it was our second home. Here, apart from discussing tough lessons with our teachers who stayed in the boarding house, we played games at the school compound later in the evening before heading home. Approaching examinations would be a busy time. Those days, examination papers were cyclostyled unlike today we have the photocopy machines to do the job. Teachers were very busy typing out question papers so this was the time we, the students will offer our help to them.

Those days, the teachers and students were deemed close. I could still remember one of our fond teachers, Cikgu Nor Azlan who was a helpful and caring person. There was no race discrimination. In fact, he had helped me a lot in my studies and he was also my ‘Red House’ sports master. In fact, I was physically a short person but through his coaching, I was able to participate even in the high jump event that has stunned many. I got the 1st runner up for the event. Another fond teacher was Cikgu Norzam, the discipline master. He was another stern teacher and tolerates no nonsense. Some mischievous students were even caned by him. In fact, he was actually concerned, as he wanted the students to behave properly. Our principal was Mr. Ng Kim Huat, a highly inspired person and always supported his students to take up activities in school rather then ‘lepaking’ around. He would always endorse funds for most of the school projects and curriculums.

During my year in Form 4, that was the time I first met my girl friend who was studying in Bridge Class. It was ‘love at first sight’. Many said that love relationship in high school was transient and would never last long, but I proved them wrong. Indeed, our relationship persisted until we left school and finally today she became my wife and we had a kid. I felt very proud to have a St Paulian wife indeed.

Beaufort is a little town. In the weekends, apart from visiting the Saturday ‘Tamu’ or watching a movie in the only cinema available, there were no other significant places to go. Our pass time is to roam around the ‘kampung’ vicinity cycling, shooting birds or fishing in the rivers. Besides, as I came from a poor family, I have to assist my parents to tap rubber, and sometimes have to be a nursemaid for my younger siblings and relative’s children while the adults have to continue working even in the weekends. During school holidays, I have to find some part time jobs like working in the orchards to earn some pocket money.

In conclusion, although I did not fair well in my studies for further education, St Paul’s School has nevertheless taught me a lot. It was due to this wonderful high school that had nurtured me to possess a profound foundation in confronting the convoluted society of today.  I am now operating my very own business and together with my lovely St Paulian wife, we are currently running two companies in Kota Kinabalu, one distributing power tools while the other dealing with light machineries and plants.

By and large, I would like to thank St Paul’s School again for providing me the fundamental basics that had granted me a sound confidence to build my business career today.  The school motto “Strive That Ye May Obtain” shall persist in my heart forever.

By: 

Chong Ket Leong

(1988-1994)

              

School Life in St Paul’s during the 80s..

It’s an honour to be given this opportunity to write something on my life as a student in St Paul’s School. I felt emotional whenever I talk about my past in this great school. There was so much to talk about on these nostalgic memoirs.  Nonetheless, I shall give a brief account of my school life as it begins.,

I came from ‘Kampung Bukau’, Beaufort, a village famous for its Durians!  Situated along the Sipitang Highway (now known as Pan Borneo Highway), and is about 10 miles away from Beaufort town. 

It was about 30 years ago when I now recalled. Back to those days, the condition of the said road was still gravel, dusty, and bumpy!  Imagine only about 10 miles away, we need to take more than an hour to reach the school by bus (Bas berhenti-henti).  

So, every morning together with my other siblings, we have to wake up as early as 4.30am to catch the bus that would pick us up around 5.30am! We got to leave home early because that was the only bus plying to pick up students from Tuna Valley, Bukau, Lumadan, Batu 6, Padas Valley and Luagan.           

Once you missed this bus meaning to say you will miss class! Well, the other alternative was to impede other transports plying on the same route to get a ride. The same applied after school. Each time we have to hurry to catch our bus to go home and most of the time when we reached home it would be near evening. The worst will come by when the weather turns rainy. The road will be flooded and we could only wait for the floodwater to subside before the journey resumed. Those were the arduous days, school life was ever been for me.

I still remembered at one time when the new school term commenced in January. There was great excitement for me. This was because on the first day of school, I could wear a new pair of shoes, put on a new uniform and proudly carting a new school bag. The other anticipation was to meet up new ‘strangers’ in the class. However, a flood hampered all the jovialities. The new classroom was filthy with mud as deep as knee high! Finally, the first day back to school ended up with scooping of mud, cleaning up tables and chairs. All my new ‘barang’ became grubby for the very first day. This incident was the most unforgettable part of my memory in St. Paul’s!

Literally, I was not active in extra curricular activities but I was ever selected to be a school prefect. I did not hold the post long owing to my house distance to school being a hindrance while another factor was the transport problem. 

My beloved classmates of Form 5-1981

In 1976, when I first join the school commenced in Bridge Class, all subjects were taught in BM medium except for English and Chinese subjects. Most of my classmates were from SR Kung Ming and their BM was not very fluent. I got an advantage comparatively as I speak BM regularly in my ‘Kampung’. However, we were most fortunate to have a very good BM teacher, Cikgu Mohd Shafie, who polished the subject for us and as days went by, our BM gradually improved.

Form 5 in 1981 was a year of gaiety and hard work. While confronting SPM examinations for the final year, we had a share of fun in class too. I remembered on one instance where the frisky boys in our class came out with a queer idea to make fun on our lady English teacher. In her lesson, while she was on the way to the classroom, the whole class squatted down to hide from her. Thus, from a far distance, the classroom appeared to be vacant causing her to turn back to the staff room to check on what had happened. When she found nothing amiss, she returned to the class but we did the same trick making her puzzled on the whole episode. At last, she gave up and the day’s English lesson was over. All of us were chuckling in joy on the consequence of the trick but this absurd and stunning incident misleading a teacher was much treacherous and regrettable, as I recalled.

During my 6 years period in St Paul’s, the principal was Mr. Goh Chit Yong. Today, I would like to pay tribute to him and his team of dedicated teachers whom had taught and disciplined me. Without their kind devotion and effort, my life wouldn’t be of better today! A big ‘thank you’ and cheers to all of them! 

Finally, whenever I passed by St Paul’s School on the way to my ‘Kampung”, I would joyfully glance at the school while murmuring to myself….huh!  those were the great old days!  Nevertheless, the fond memories in this beloved St Paul’s School, Beaufort shall linger in my mind forever!

By: 

Gan Chew Yen 

(1976-1981)

School Life in St.Paul's during the 70s..

It is an undeniable fact that school days are the happiest days in one's life. 37 years after graduatingfrom St. Paul's Secondary School, Beaufort, I still can remember vividly those happy and glorious days.

Those were the days that we were care free, without any worries of having to earn a living; without worries on our state of health as we were young and energetic; without worries on which political party to vote during the general election; without worries on the ever increasing price of everything we use and eat; without worries on which smart phone to possess and which notebook, netbook or ebook reader to own so as not to lose face and lose out when to our classmates or peers.

In the 70s there were only a few cars in Beaufort town and only 2 to 3 teachers can afford to own a car and drove to school to work. None of the students had any car. However majority of the students own a bicycle - the king of the road at that time! The population of bicycles during school days was so large that the school had to provide a special "Bicycle Shade" for them. No such privilege for the teachers who came to school with their cars. Those cars, even though owned by people like the Principal Mr. Goh Chit Yong had to be parked in front of the school administration block, under shine and rain! For those students and teachers who did not own a bicycle, they had to commute to school by "Walks"wagon! Public transport at that time was very poor. One may have to wait for hours before a "Land Rover" with a wagon trailing behind would come along. There were no school buses or public buses in Beaufort then. And then those students from Bongawan and Membakut would have to come and go back by train.

During the early 70s quite a number of qualified teachers who came from overseas like Mr. PS Bell and Miss Janie Bell and Father Colin Hurford had left us. Even Mr. Noel Chin and his wife and also his brother Mr. Peter Chin were transferred to Kota Kinabalu. Mr. Goh Chit Yong was appointed as the Principal to succeed Mr. Noel Chin.

To replace those who had left, the school employed some very young teachers from Peninsular Malaysia. Some of these teachers had just completed their Higher School Certificate and were recruited to teach us who are in Form Four and Five. Undoubtedly there were just a few years our senior. Among those were Mr. Lim Kar Keng, Mr. Yew Choo Khan, Mr. Looi Chee Thong, Mr. Voon Lun Chong, Mr. Leow Guan Hin, Encik Wan Sham Ismail, Encik Maarof, Encik Abdul Rahman, Mr. Liew Kai San, Miss Theresa Liew and Mr. Dhana Palan. They taught us Science, Mathematics, English and Malay. Since we were almost of the same age, we could communicate in the same frequency. We were teachers and students during school hours, but we were friends after school hours. We used to spend a lot of time together going outings, playing games and of course partying. As far as I know 3 of them even married Sabahans (2 of them St. Paulians) and settled down in Sabah and produced Sabahan offsprings.

As we always gathered around those young teachers, we were highly motivated in whatever we did. It would not be complete if I do not mention the famous "floods" of Beaufort - the Venice of the East. Every year Beaufort was flooded several times. And inevitably our school also came under several feet of water. Those boarders would have fun time with the floodwater, but they have to cook their meals on the verandah of the Boarding House as the kitchen and also the staff quarter were also under several feet of water. In the 70s there were no more cooks employed to cook meals for the boarders, they have to cook their own meals. Those teachers whose beds were floating on the floodwater would have to move their belongings to stay with the boarders. Then after the floodwater subsided, we would have to clean up the whole school!

The floods used to last one to two weeks, no wonder at that time not many of us can score good results in our examination! If you get a Grade 3 in the School Certificate Examination, you we're blessed. If you scored Grade Two you can proceed to study Higher School Certificate in Kota Kinabalu. If you score Grade One, you were Great! Compare to now, scoring 8As or even 10As in PMR or SPM is only like a piece of cake. You can have it and eat it. Besides the disruption occasioned by the floods, there were also very few reference books and study packs available. There were hardly any past year examinations papers for use to know what the questions would look like. We were like commandos, just went to the examination hall and start shooting blindly.

One of the areas, which our students excelled in 1973, was sports. In that year we managed to beat St. John Secondary School, our archrival, to become the Beaufort District School Champion! The first time in many many years! What a joy it was for all of us that year. Sports history was finally made.

We had never seen any model answers to the past year questions. There was totally lack of reference material for us. We just depend on the textbooks and notes from the teachers. Students nowadays are a lucky lot. They can have access to past year’s questions and answers, lots and lots of reference books, study packs and even forecast examination questions and answers! They can also engage tuition teachers! During our days, we were our own tuition teachers. 

Although there was lack of facilities during the 70s, we made do with what we had. And most important of all we had fun and friends. The friendship among the Ex-St. Paulians had solidified throughout the past 40 years. Because of the quest to maintain the relationship and friendship, under the proposal and encouragement of our Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman, who himself an Ex St. Paulian, the St. Paul's Alumni Association was formed and registered on 1st September 2009. The first term of the committee members of the Association was elected in May 2010.

I still treasured my school days in the 70s. Working life is inevitably tough, but whenever the going gets tough, I would travel back to the happy days of the 70s to draw happiness, encouragement and inspiration. Those were the days!!

Contributed by 

Datuk Chin Chee Kee 

(1968-1973)

The golden days of the sixties in education and co-curriculum to mould future leaders.

In the sixties it was difficult to get an education.  Students had to pay to get an education and at the same time assist their parents at home.  System of education was elimination of failures.  A few will reach Senior Cambridge and the best will continue for higher education. During those days none were jobless.  Jobs were for the taking.  Standard Six graduates could become teachers.  How did this happen?

The standard of education was very high.  The teachers were motivated by how many of their students can pass an examination rather then monetary gain.  The standard of education was never compromised in the sixties.  I can still remember the dedicated teachers from India, England, West Malaysia, Burma and Singapore.

The job of the School Captain was only second to the teachers.  The School Captain and the prefects were given controlled powers to discipline the students.  As an example, students caught speaking Bahasa Melayu at that time were fined ten cents.  It was successful.

Co-curriculum activities provided students with freedom to learn new things.  Students were taught to lead in various activities such as the Scouts movement, the School Band and taking part in acting and singing in the School Concert.  Students became ‘Jack of All Trades’ and they developed the spirit of never to say ‘NO’ when others needed help.

Things appeared to have changed these days and there seems to be the absence of the spirit of ‘gotong royong’ amongst the students.  Their focus seems to be to study, study, and study apparently for a better future.

Nelson Mathews

School Captain 1969