Teoh Chye Teik, RIP

IT IS WITH sadness that we report the passing of one of the former teachers of Westlands Primary School and Penang Free School. Mr Teoh Chye Teik was 83 years old when he died in Singapore yesterday. For many of my old schoolmates from Primary school, he was the Class Teacher of Standard 6 Red in 1965.

Teoh Chye Teik was an Old Free and he was selected by the then Headmaster of Penang Free School to join the teaching staff there in the late 1960s. He excelled in playing Cricket and Tennis, and had represented Penang and Malaysia in Cricket. At the Free School, he taught Mathematics.

Teoh Chye Teik attended the Bicentenary dinner of
Penang Free School in Oct 2016

One of our schoolmates, Siang Jin, penned this fitting eulogy to our old school master today:

“I remember Mr Teoh Chye Teik for a number of things:

(1) When a visiting West Indies cricket team played Penang during the time he was captain of the state team, he mentioned that he was blue and black all over and could hardly see the ball when the fast bowlers were fielded. The Penang side nevertheless tried to play their best against the Windies.

(2) Dato Tan Boon Lin mentioned recently that he specially selected many teachers for Penang Free School to beef up teaching and co-curricular quality. Mr Teoh was one of the hand-picked few.

From the 1971 issue of the
Penang Free School Magazine

 (3) He taught General Mathematics in the Arts stream and, according to Sukumaran, our classmate, he had a methodical way of solving matters like "plan and elevation". I remember that very well. That gave us a fighting chance against the Science boys.

(4) His sternness, which is appreciated by those who learned under him, is legendary. On his first day in Form 4A in 1969, he asked Michael Sak and me, with two others, to stand up and warned us that we should behave -- which we did. Subsequently, everything was OK.

(5) He was a dedicated teacher and coach.”