Both my parents came from China. My father had three years of schooling and could just read the newspapers while my mother was illiterate. I never attended any kindergarten. Yet, schooling in Penang, especially in the Penang Free School, gave me a strong foundation for the years ahead.
Wellesley — Good conduct?
When I went to Primary One in Wellesley School in 1953, I could not speak more than three words in English. The first words we had to learn were “Teacher excuse me” when I wanted to go to the toilet. However, I was good in arithmetic, perhaps from my coffee shop environment. Within a week, I was given some sums to do, and then I was transferred to Class 1D which was a double-promotion class. We had to do three years work in two. Not surprisingly, I was in 26th position in the first year, but I managed to rise to 10th position in the second year.
I still remember some of my classmates like Tan Poh Seng, Lim Eng Hong, Lee Chaing Hin and Chew Gim Hye. Later I found out that Teh-Tiong Sa was also my classmate then. I nearly got the prize for Best Conduct, but it went to Lim Say Kwee, whom I believed was the nephew to the headmaster. Our class teacher was a Eurasian, Mr Johnson. My mum would give me a raisin bun, a milk drink and ten cents for refreshments during recess. I remembered envying the other schoolmates who could go inside the tuck shop for noodles and ice-cream. Occasionally, a school boy would sell me his coupon for ten cents. It was a treat for me!
Each week, the dental nurses would come to our class to check our teeth. Unlike most pupils, I looked forward to the trip to the dental clinic as I had a pretty-looking dental nurse attending to me. I had not reached puberty yet so there was no erotic fixation! She did an excellent job and kept most of my teeth intact (with the black mercury fillings) till today.
Westlands — General knowledge prize!
After two years, all of us were transferred to the feeder schools such as Westlands, Francis Light and Hutchings schools. While Wellesley School was only a five-minute walk from my rented room in Swatow Lane (famous for the New World Park ice kacang), I had to sit in a trishaw for a 20-minute ride to Westlands School. The fare was only $3 per month, but sometimes we had to cram six children in the trishaw.
Since we were from the express class, we went straight into standard 4E. I had chicken pox during the mid-year test and attained 24th position in the class, but fortunately I improved to 5th place by the end of the year. I did better in the next two years, achieving within the top three positions. In Standard Five, I obtained 100 marks in four subjects, and that was in the days when it was not common to get such high marks. There was a special General Knowledge test in which I managed to win the prize. I chose a book titled “100 Great Lives” which is still in my possession. We had to sit for a statewide Form One entrance exam to stream the students to the secondary schools. The top 200 boys would enter Penang Free School. I managed to be the top student from Westlands but was beaten by a few others from Francis Light School including Dennis Lee.
I was among the shortest kids in the standard. However it was an advantage for me as the children were grouped in four classes within the games houses according to height and not to age. So even when I was in Standard Six, I was placed in Class III, mixing with the younger students. I was even made Captain of the Class I football team! In Standard Five, I was called up to see the headmaster, once for talking during assembly and on another occasion for “fighting”! I remembered that I was in the same group with Oh Siew Leng while Ong Tat Teik was in the rival group.
We used to have drama lessons every other week. I was rather enthusiastic and remembered how melodramatic I would be, playing the different roles in the sketches. In 1957, the year of our Independence, I was selected to be the voice of one of the characters in a puppet show at the combined schools concert. I acted as a Malay boy and I had to shout “Merdeka” three times in the closing scene.
Penang Free School
I entered PFS in 1958 in Form 1A under Goh Teong Chye as our form teacher. He would ask all the students to contribute 20 cents per month to buy the daily newspaper, which he would read first. The next day he passed the papers to us to cut out the highlighted news for display on the notice board. I nearly won the prize for National Language (Malay language for the non-Malays).
The Malay boys were not eligible as they had to sit for the Bahasa Melayu test. However, Jammal claimed to be eligible, being an lndian Muslim, and he beat me by two marks for the National Language prize. One morning at the end of the year, there was singing in the class. I remembered singing a Russ Hamilton song “Tip Toe through the Tulips”, but received a lot of laughter. I had mispronounced the words as “Chip Choe through the Chulips”! The best singer that day was Ong Hean Beng.
The next year in Form 2A, we were under Mr Cheng Hin who had just returned from Brinsford Lodge Teachers College in UK the year before. He was very enthusiastic. At the beginning of the year, he announced that the class project would be to produce a magazine. This was unheard of for such a junior class. However, we did produce the cyclostyled magazine and sold it for 20 cents. In the magazine, there was a quiz which we could send in the answers to him during the school holidays. I got the prize, as apparently I was the only one to mail in the answers. Knowing my interest on the stars, he gave me a book on Astronomy. I managed to achieve 4th position in the whole form, but the Form Teacher’s remarks on my report card were “good but rather playful at times!”
Somehow I did not remember much about my Form 3 year except that we all had to study hard for our LCE (Lower Certificate of Education). In those days, with an LCE, one could join the government service as a policeman. I was second in the form for the school exam and obtained five As and two Bs in the LCE.
With my marks, I was placed in the Form 4 Science class. Usually the top 40 students were streamed into the Science class but there were a few top students like Iyer (now Sulaiman) who did not like Science and went to Form 5A. We had to study three science subjects and two mathematics papers. We were glad that History was dropped. Dennis came to 5 Science but was allowed to sit for two science subjects as he took music as an examination subject. Several of us would cycle to Dennis home in Mt Erskine, especially when the rambutans in his garden were ripe. We produced a class magazine which we called “The Mad Mosquitoes”, an unusual name with no apparent reason!
I managed to do well in Forms 4 and 5, being in 3rd and 5th in the forms respectively. For my Cambridge School Certificate (sometimes called Senior Cambridge) I obtained seven As out of eight, together with Tan Poh Hwa and Koe Chong Aun. I only got a Credit for my English Language but got a distinction A1 in English Literature! Thanks to Mr Bennet who helped us enjoy English poetry written by Keats, Shelley and Byron and even Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. “If music is the food of love, play on!” We just have to pass the national language to qualify for the Malaysia Certificate of Education (MCE). We had to sit for the Sixth Form Entrance exam for eligibility to enter Form Six in January, as the SC Exam results would only come out by March. I was thrilled that I obtained the second highest marks in the state.
Tuition
I never had tuition in all my school years. My parents could not afford the fees even though they were just about ten to 20 dollars a month. It was a credit to our teachers who taught so well, that tuition was unnecessary. Perhaps our parents were not so kiasu then. The only time when I needed extra help was in Bahasa Kebangsaan. So in Form Five, I enrolled in the evening classes held at Hu Yu Seah night school for just three dollars a month. We were even given a certificate after attending the weekly classes for one year.
Some of us would meet in one of the homes to study together. More often, especially for those of us who lived in crowded homes, we cycled to the Penang public library to study and consult the reference books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. We did not have internet Google then!
Teachers
We still remembered some quirks among our teachers. Lee San Hoe was very superstitious and would become very angry when he saw two white chalks upright on the table. Another teacher Tan Ah Fee would sing out loud “la la la Speedy Gonzales”. Captain Mohd Noor (who used to be in the army) would ask us “how many gantang” when we returned from the toilet. His favourite suit was pink in colour. He also kept his shoes shining bright – some claimed that he would place his shoes under a lady’s skirt! He was particularly stern with the Malay boys. Another Malay teacher, Iskandar, was rotund in size but was very kind and friendly, offering to give free tuition in his home. Our first Malay language teacher was actually a Chinese, Beh Teik Chooi, who had remarried to a Malay lady. He was fond of telling us stories from the Japanese occupation. One teacher would teach us by making us spend the whole period, copying notes which he wrote on the notice board. Ambrose was the earliest to arrive in the school and the first to make announcement during the Monday school assembly. Our Form 4 PE teacher, Teh Keng Chooi, did the unusual, by getting our class photograph taken without our shirts, exposing our scrawny chests!
Another teacher Khoo Tiang Lim claimed that he did not use soap for bathing, as it might wash away our natural body oil. KTL said to Wee Kyam Hooi, who often made humorous remarks in class, “you are allowed only one joke a year!” Our Biology teacher, Lee Eng Leong, corrected us when we used the word “hole” for the female organ. He insisted it was a “slit”. There was a very fierce teacher Teoh Cheng Hai nicknamed “bulldog”, but he was actually quite pleasant if we worked in his craft class on Saturdays. There were very kind teachers, but there were some who would throw chalks or even the wooden black board dusters at us. We also had our first lady teacher, who came as Miss Tan Cheng Ee, but later disappointed some of us when she became Mrs Oh Eu Kok. We used to make fun of her by sighing “OOOOOh...” Then we had an English retired army major, Edwards, who taught us Physics. His army discipline included a long ruler but tempered with gentle “Oh dear dear dear...” when we gave the wrong answers.
One type of punishment imposed by many teachers in the lower forms was to make us write repeatedly, for example “I must not eat in class” or “I must not be late for school”. If we were asked to write 10 pages, our writing would be extra large but if we were to write the same sentence 100 times, we would squeeze the 100 lines on one page. On one occasion, we were asked to write the sentence “I must put a full-stop at the end of the sentence.” But a number of us forgot to put the punctuation at the end of some of the lines! C Ponniah would punish by asking the student, in his shrill Tamil accent, “Be mounted”, that is, to stand on the chair.
Sports
There were many opportunities to take part in sports and games. Every student learned how to play football, cricket, hockey, badminton and rugby, in rotation throughout the year. Tennis was more for the richer kids. We even had Additional Sports Day where every student had to take part in the 100 yards, 400 yards, high jump and long jump. Points were given for each student who achieve the qualifying standard that was decided according to the age group. I was able to get all the four points, just managing to clear the qualifying standards. One year, I was sick and could not take part. My house (Pinhorn, blue colour) lost the championship by two points! If I had been well, Pinhorn would have won! I was not good in sports but managed to represent my House in football, cricket (but never scored a run) and debate.
School activities
In the upper forms, we had to come back to school twice a week for two lessons, followed by extra-curricular activities which could be scouting, cadets, or band followed by games. There were many clubs and societies to join, from Science and History to Music and Drama, Photography, Gardening and Art and Craft classes. There were no religious or cultural societies then, although there was an informal gathering of Christians during the recess once a week in one of the teacher’s houses in the school compound. Dennis used to invite me to join them. On other days, a group of us grouped together during recess to share Smarties sweets, to be purchased by one boy in rotation.
I took part in the Stamp Club, Craft Class, Science Society and the Music and Drama Society, Historical Society (it made interesting trips) and the National Language Society. For one whole year I was forced to join the Scouts, but I was not interested. I did not wear the scout uniform. However, I passed the Tenderfoot test and enjoyed the camping and hiking trips.
In Form Lower Six, I was Science Editor for the Outlook magazine but in the following year I was asked to be sub-editor of the School Magazine by Yeo Guan Teik. In those days, we had to type the articles on the typewriter, and the printer used individual metal letters to set the pages. We often had to check the proofs again and again till the wee hours of the night. Even though I was a novice photographer, I managed to capture some images of memorable events, which were included in the school magazine. We started the first PFS Newsletter, a bi-monthly newspaper, but were asked by the headmaster to hand over to another editorial board headed by Srinivasa Iyer.
The Sixth Form Recreational Activities (SFRA) was formed for those Six Formers who were not involved in any uniformed group or school sports teams. We played the miscellaneous games such as netball (the boys enjoyed playing with the girls, much to the horror of Ambrose), volleyball, table tennis and folk-dance! As chairman of SFRA, I was given the privilege to learn the new game of softball and even became an instructor (at least on the theoretical aspects).
When we went into Form Six, we faced a different world. There were girls admitted to our class. There were not so many in the Science classes as in the Arts classes, but least most of the Science girls wanted to do Biology rather than Mathematics. The boys had to learn to restrain their pranks and jokes and show chivalry. At the end of the year concert, our Form 6 Sc Class entered a team of four boys and four girls called “Battle of the Sexes”. They sang a couple of humorous songs, (with lyrics adapted by me) entitled ”Woman is Fickle” against ”Man is Flirtatious”. One of the memorable lines was Poh Hwa who sang, “When will you be mine” and Ee Looi replied, “If you got the money, honey, I’ve got the time”! We won the Prize for best group performance!
