The area, it is a changin'

THE AREA around Westlands Primary has undergone a number of changes; a few of which are quite radical. Here are some photos with captions to illustrate them.

Our school has, of course, been turned into a sports training centre. The above is its official name: "Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Westlands" or the Westlands Centre of Sports Excellence. Read more about it here. A unit of the Penang Education Department, it also houses the MSSPP or Majlis Sukan Sekolah Pulau Pinang. Read here.

The former Rediffusion building has now been incorporated into the Penang Christian Centre, a part of the Assemblies of God, Malaysia. The PCC has two centres, the second in Butterworth. Read more about PCC here.

One of the bungalows along Khaw Sim Bee Road now houses Tadika Buddhist Tzu Chi. Read more about the Tzu Chi Malaysia, Penang branch, here.

Pykett Methodist Primary is set to become Wesley Methodist School Penang (International). According to Bishop Dr Ong Hwai Teik of the Methodist Church in Malaysia: "We are now once again called upon to further act on this mission call, this time in a different age and season, by returning to 'our roots'  to build a new school of 'Education with Mission, Excellence and Compassion' i.e. the Wesley Methodist School Penang (International). Work on the building of this new institution has begun." Read here

The block of buildings where Mrs Phipp's kindergarten used to be is now the Pinang A's Learning Center. Established in 2006, the centre uses the "Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) programme with an emphasis on holistic development". Read more about it here.

Westlands Secondary School remains the "School for the Gentlemen", however, it has added a covered court to be used for basketball and futsal (see below) next to its main entrance.

The Chinese Recreation Club has been renovated with restaurants and a new pool. Parts of the building, the pavilion for example, has retained its original ambience. Read more here.

Westlands boy getting recognised

A story that appeared in The Star newspaper's Metro North section yesterday (14th Aug 2018). Would you know Dato' Khoo Yeoh Gan Hong, the former Penang Scout Commissioner with a double-barrel surname?

If your eyesight's bad 😜 and you cannot read the text in the image above, this was the pertinent section that was written about him:

NINETY-YEAR-OLD former Penang State Scout Commissioner Datuk Khoo Yeoh Gan Hong was the oldest Scout to receive the Bintang Kesetiaan Mutiara during the World Scouts Day award ceremony at the Ixora Hotel in Prai, Butterworth.

Khoo, a father of five and grandfather of eight, was a school teacher before he joined the Penang Education Department as the Organiser of Schools. He retired from service in 1983.

“I urge youths to join Scouting and accept the challenges,” said an elated Khoo.

Recalling his trip to Melbourne, Australia, to attend the Scouts Jamboree from December 1948 to January 1949, Khoo said he boarded a train from Penangto Singapore.

“I was lucky to find some well-wishers who collected enough money to buy me a ticket on the boat.
“Upon reaching Fremantle, I took a train to Melbourne.

“I did not have a passport then but fortunately, a bank manager who knew me helped by standing as a guarantor for my passport application in Singapore,” he said.

Khoo added that he managed to make it in time for the jamboree’s opening ceremony.

“It was a long journey but luck was with me,” he said, adding that he would never forget all those who helped him attend the jamboree.

Khoo became a Scout in 1940 when he was studying in Westlands School. After the Second World War, he went to Penang Free School where he joined the Hamilton Scout Troop and studied there till 1948.

Hike to Taiping and Maxwell Hill, 1956

IN 1956, three teachers from Westlands School took a group of 12 scouts on a five-day hike from Penang to Taiping and up Maxwell Hill, and back. Two of the courageous and adventurous teachers were Thomas Khor and Hwang Hong Shi. The hike, which involved boys in Standard Six, took place during the year-end school holidays, from 17-21 December, 1956.

The teachers, now over 80-years-old, were in their late teens or early twenties then. In a recent interview with Mr Khor and Mr Hwang about the trip, they said they visited a large number of places and stayed at a government rest house when they got up Maxwell Hill.

They remembered distinctly one incident: Some time during the hike, probably near Taiping, they got drenched in the rain. It happened at a kampung and a very hospitable headman gave them shelter in a mosque. The village leader was very impressed that they had walked all the way from Penang. He even cooked them a huge meal of curry before sending them off again.

Mere words cannot describe the details of their trip, however, pictures can. The following, with captions wherever possible, are from the Hwang Hong Shi collection:

Taking a dip at the Burmese Pool. Hwang is on the extreme left. Read more
on the pool here

Stopover at the Ranting Waterfall, visible from Taiping. Khor is on the
extreme left; Hwang is wearing a hat. Read more  here

Taiping Lake Garden: First public garden established by the British in
Malaya. Read more here

Human pyramid at the Lake Garden. Get another view on the Lake
Garden here

Sri Maha Kalaliamman Temple, Maxwell Hill. Read more here

Mini-roundabout at Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut). Read here about
Maxwell Hill

Maxwell Hill Youth Hostel (Rumah Tumpangan Pemuda Pemudi)

Perak Museum, Taiping. First museum to be established by the British in
Malaya. Read here

An express lane for the intelligent

AT THE tender age of seven, did you feel more intelligent that the boy sitting next to you in school? Whether you did or not, there was an attempt in the 1960s to push the more intelligent ones – or the pupils perceived to be more intelligent – more quickly through their primary education. A development arising from the Rahman Talib Report was the concept of express classes “for more intelligent children to complete their primary education in five years instead of six.” (The Straits Times, 14 January 1962) A Unesco paper in 1973, titled “The educational statistics system of Malaysia 1972”, gave more information:

At the beginning of the second year in a large primary school, the more intelligent pupils are placed in the express class based on their performance in the previous year, the recommendation of their class teachers and the approval of the parents concerned. They will remain in such class until they complete the remaining part of the primary education in the next four years thereby completing the primary education in five years instead of six. Prior approval of the Chief Education Officer must be sought whenever a Head of School wishes to start an express class. Express classes exist in a number of large primary schools and statistics on them are regularly collected. In 1971, the number of Express classes in West Malaysia was 98 classes with 3,835 pupils.

The pioneering Standard Two Express class
at Westlands School in 1962.

Thus in 1962, an express class was introduced into Standard Two in Westlands School. Ironically, many of my friends who were streamed into the first Standard Two Express simply had no idea why we had been so chosen. Guinea pigs, we turned out to be. Or whether our parents had been informed at the very least. Were we really that more intelligent that the rest of our classmates who did not go into the express class? On what basis were we chosen? Even the old teachers that we spoke to could not recall the criteria of selection. If I could remember correctly, one told me recently, each class in Standard One in 1961 were requested to pick their five best pupils to go to the express class the following year.

(As a footnote, perhaps I WAS a wee bit more intelligent at my young age after all. I do remember that in 1964, the school introduced an Intelligence Test for the first time in its history. Everyone took the test and to my surprise, I scored the highest marks among my peers, not only in the class but in the whole of Standard Five. But no prize was forthcoming for me, unfortunately. The school offered no prize for this test. Darn. The very first and only time I ever came out tops among the boys in any test and I got no prize, no recognition. Ha ha... 😜)

I have no idea how long the original Standard Two express classes lasted in the Malaysian education system. Contrary to the Unesco report I mentioned earlier, it was suggested in an academic paper, “The identification of gifted and talented students” by Siti Fatimah Mohd Yassin, Noriah Mohd Ishak, Melor Mohd Yunus and Rosadah Abd Majid, published in 2012, that the programme ended in 1970. I have also seen a short report in The Straits Times of 26 July 1968 that the Minister of Education, Mohammed Khir Johari, had wanted the express classes to be discontinued from 1969. The system was not good enough, he had felt. There were varying standards in different schools and he claimed that the pupils were admitted to express classes at the discretion of teachers and headmaster only.

Neither was this the only experimentation by the Ministry of Education. According to Abu Yazid bin Abu Bakar from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the Ministry of Education had intermittently introduced such express class programmes for pupils with high academic potential over a period of three decades (1960s through 1990s). In his paper, “Developing gifted and talented education program: The Malaysian experience” published in Jan 2017, he wrote that the express classes in 1962 gave such pupils the opportunity to accelerate their elementary education. “Likewise,” he added, “the Level One Assessment System in 1996 was a similar acceleration effort to shorten the elementary education of academically talented pupils. However, all these transformational efforts to develop programmes specifically tailored for gifted and talented pupils were short-lived due to factors such as lack of instructions, training, leadership and resources.”

© Quah Seng Sun

Pursuing unity through education

PRIMARY education in this country has changed a fair bit. Two major reports, the Razak Report (1956) and the Rahman Talib Report (1960), resulted in two pieces of legislation that, amongst other aims, made education a primary tool to foster national unity. As a means of unifying the country, their main focus was on making Malay the national language and English a lingua franca. The laws were also aimed at streamlining the school system.

Prior to the re-organisation from January 1957, there were two stages in a child's primary education, where teaching in the English language was concerned. First, he would have to undergo a basic elementary education for two years before he could move on to a primary school for the next four years. The smarter ones would then progress to the secondary school stage after overcoming some Government examinations along the way. Double promotions were already not unheard of, while there were many reported instances of over-aged pupils too. Too many, in fact.

A few primary schools were already considered as the feeder schools to Penang Free School. First, there was the Northam Road Government School which operated from 1922 to 1933. Hutchings School came into existence in 1928 after the Free School relocated to newer premises in Green Lane and the old premises in Farquhar Street was converted into the primary school. Then there was Francis Light School which was established two years later in 1930 and finally, Westlands School followed in 1935.

These non-missionary schools provided primary education in English from Standard Three onwards till Standard Six. So what about Standards One and Two? For these two years, a child would have to enrol in elementary schools such as the Hillview Government English School that was set up in 1924 (and which later became the Wellesley School in 1936).

When I was trying to get confirmation from a few people who were senior to me in age that this was their primary school experience in the 1950s, I learnt that they had indeed studied at Wellesley School for their first two years of education. After that, their parents had applied for them to continue with their primary school education, Standards Three to Six, at the Francis Light, Hutchings or Westlands Schools.

All this changed at the start of the school year in January 1957 as a result of the implementation of a new education policy. In May 1956, the Federal Legislative Council had debated and unanimously adopted a new 10-year education plan, called the Razak Report, which was proposed by the then Minister of Education, Abdul Razak Hussein. The following excerpt is extracted from The Straits Times of 17 May 1956:

“I ask the council to endorse the policy in this report so that with the dawning of merdeka we can provide a happy and glorious future for every child born in Malaya,” he said. “No member will blink the fact that our educational plan is ambitious, a challenge to the skill and resources of the Government machinery. The country is going through a period of political transition. Political freedom and full nationhood are round the corner. Therefore, as Malaya enters this new era in her history, let us give our children ideals and loyalties to which they can stretch their hands and which can promise them a happy and contented future. This report lays the foundation of a national system of education on which a united Malayan nation will be born and grow into a happy and stately manhood. I am grateful to the public for having received the report with understanding and support,” he added.

“Strangely enough,” he continued, “the little opposition there has been came from the Malays whom the report is intended to benefit. The Minister referred to a headline in a Malay newspaper which said: "The education report eliminates the Malay language. It gives statutory recognition to English and other languages...”

He commented: “Can a sane and sensible person honestly believe that this report has the effect of eliminating the Malay language when its main recommendation is to enlarge and enrich the Malay language and uphold and uplift Malay education? The report is centred on a policy to make Malay the national language of the country and to raise the standard and the status of the Malay language. In formulating the new education policy, the committee tried to meet the various viewpoints as far as it could. We could not meet fully all the viewpoints expressed (but we are under no delusion that we would have pleased everyone with this report. We would consider ourselves extremely lucky if we had pleased the majority of the people.”

Razak said that the committee had borne in mind the importance of bringing children of all races under a national system of education, and recommended that there should be a uniformity of conditions and a common content of syllabuses. “We strongly believe that one of the essential elements in the building of a united Malayan nation is that children of all races should learn the same things in the same way at school,” he said. “They may not initially learn them through the same language but so long as they learn the same things about Malaya we consider this country will have gone a long way towards establishing a national system of education. This as stated in our terms of reference, ‘would satisfy the need of the people and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation’.”

The report recommended that there should be a variety of primary schools falling into two broad types – standard primary schools with Malay, the national language, as the medium of instruction, and standard-type primary schools in which the medium of instruction may be Kuo Yu or Tamil or English. In the standard primary schools English will be a compulsory subject, and Kuo Yu or Tamil will be taught if there are 15 or more children whose parents want them to learn these languages. Malay and English will be compulsory in standard-type primary schools. There will be established one type of national secondary school where the pupils work towards a common syllabus and to the same final examination. Malay and English will be compulsory.

Razak said: “English is still essential for use, particularly for dealing with the outside world. Therefore, the report recommends that English should be compulsory.”

On the development of the Malay language, the Minister said: “As Malaya grows into a nation, it is desirable that there should be a national language which can serve as a medium of communication among the people of all races domiciled here. Having accepted Malay as the national language, it is the duty of the Government and the people of the country, not only Malays but of all races, to do all we can to develop, enrich and enlarge that language so that it will be able to give expressions to our thought and ideas on science, economics, philosophy and the like. I can assure this council and the country generally that there is a field of opportunities in this work. the establishment of a literature agency is well in hand. This agency will be entrusted with the main task of producing books of literature in Malay not only for schools but for the general public. The report recommends as a matter of urgency the establishment of a language institute which will, in the main, train teachers for teaching Malay.”

The Rahman Talib Report of 1960, which was incorporated into the Education Act 1961, went further to speed up the process of national integration and unity through education. This 1960 report fine-tuned the proposals made in the earlier Razak Report and among the recommendations made were to make the Malay language the main language in schools, the Government providing free primary school education and automatic promotion till Form Three, an emphasis on religious and moral education, stressing on Membaca, Menulis dan Mengira (reading, writing and arithmetic) as fundamental education skills, stressing on a Malayan curriculum, providing an opportunity to continue education from nine years to 11 years, and streaming upper secondary education into either academic or vocational depending on the pupil's aptitude,

A consequence of this 1960 report, approved by Parliament in August that year, was that there would be universal free primary education in all fully-assisted schools as from January 1962. I remember being told by the class teacher that school fees would no longer be collected at Westlands School. I also remember that when I was in Standard One, I had to bring $2.50 to school at the start of every month and the money was carefully tied up in the corner of a handkerchief so that I wouldn't lose it. Another result of the implementation of this report was that the “standard” and “standard-type” schools would henceforth be known as “national (kebangsaan)” and “national-type (jenis kebangsaan)” primary and secondary schools.

Abdul Rahman Talib was appointed Minister of Education in January 1960, taking over from Razak. One of his first tasks was to send a message to all schools calling on the pupils to study the National Language. This was in conjunction with the country's first National Language Week. A month later, he chaired the Education Review Committee that had been formed to consider, among other things, the financial implications of introducing free primary education in Malaya.

The committee’s report was published on 3 Aug 1960 and predictably faced objections from Chinese language educators in the country who charged that “Chinese secondary education would be eliminated and that denial of public examinations in Chinese amounted to ousting the Chinese language from the education system.” But in reality, for the first time in the country, free primary education in Chinese - and also in English and Tamil – was to be available to all who wanted it. There were specific provisions for the study of the Chinese language and literature at both primary and secondary levels in the fully-assisted schools. And there was nothing to prevent the establishment of independent schools teaching in whatever medium they chose. (The Straits Times, 8 Nov 1960)

As a footnote, I had also touched briefly on the Razak Report in Let the Aisles Proclaim:

In September 1955, the Government appointed the then Minister of Education, Dato’ Abdul Razak bin Hussain, to head a committee to examine the existing education policy in the Federation and recommend a new national education policy which would be acceptable to the people. The committee’s terms of reference were to “satisfy their needs and promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation, having regard to the intention to make Malay the national language of the country whilst preserving and sustaining the growth of the language and culture of other communities living in the country.” Between September 1955 and April 1956, eight meetings were held before the Report of the Education Committee 1956 was released in May.

The main principle of this Razak Report, implemented by means of the Education Ordinance 1957, was not new. Education as the instrument of nation-building was already the basis of the Barnes Report and the Education Ordinance of 1952. But where the Razak Report differed was the elevation of the Malay language to the dominant position in the education system. Ultimately, the Malay language would be the main medium of instruction in schools but in the meantime, the report provided for Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil schools to continue at the primary school level, and Malay and English schools at the secondary school level. The Malay-medium schools would be known as “national schools” while the others were “national-type schools.” All schools would be funded by the Government and use a common national curriculum. Among the other recommendations in the report were that Malay and English should be compulsory subjects in all primary and secondary schools; instruction in Kuo-Yu and Tamil should be taught in all aided primary schools when needed; the Lower Certificate of Education and the Federation of Malaya Certificate of Education would be introduced for candidates from all secondary schools, and a Board of Governors would be established in schools.

Reference: Quah Seng Sun. Let the Aisles Proclaim, pp.200-201. Publisher: The Penang Free School Foundation (2016)

© Quah Seng Sun

Letter to Wan Azizah, Minister for Women and Community Development, on improving social care in Malaysia 2018

Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Dear Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah

As the Minister for Women and Community Development, I am writing to you as I wish to convey my observations and concerns regarding social work and the social care sector in our country. The main concern is on child protection and the protection of vulnerable adults.

I returned to Malaysia from the UK over 6 years ago and was very much hoping to contribute to the development of the professional social work service. I applied for my return through (and which was subsequently endorsed by) the Talent Corp “Returning Expert Programme.” 

My entire working career in the UK was in social work, particularly in London Local Authorities (20+ years) ending up as Chief Officer/Principal Advisor and a Director of Social Services. I was a CEO of a “mental health and supported housing” Charity in South East London. I was also a Judicial Member of the Care Services Tribunal, set up to protect children and vulnerable adults and was an External Examiner for Universities programme for social work education and qualifications. Prior to returning to Malaysia, my own Government-approved UK Company provided services to children/young people with special needs and challenging behaviour (including child refuges or unaccompanied minors). 

This letter is in some ways an appeal to you, to implement in my view, much overdue action towards the improvement of services for our fellow citizens, in particular those least able to care for themselves.

Perhaps you are aware that the Care Services sector (specialist day care and residential care) for children with disabilities/special needs and for “vulnerable” adults is variable in standards and quality and remains unrecognised and neglected. Apart from the few Government-run establishments, most of specialist provisions are within the private and the voluntary sector (NGOs). 

It is the case that social care and support services currently provided are not formally “registered or regulated” over the way it delivers its services. Without any proper safeguards, there is a real risk that service users may not be adequately protected. As reported in the media there have been instances over the years of abuse and institutional neglect of residents in many of the care services establishments. Therefore, this is a public safety issue.

There is a need in my view to introduce “regulation” in order to instil not only public confidence, but also promote good services. If clinics, hospitals and schools are regulated why are social care provider-establishments exempt?  

My next main concern is towards a professional service that is sadly (woefully) least understood and so far unrecognised in our country. I am referring to the current disappointing situation regarding mainstream professional “social workers”.

Social workers, although unqualified in this country are at best university degree-trained and at worst, untrained. This occupation involving “social care” needs to be accorded appropriate recognition by the country and this could come about through the draft Social Worker’s Act, currently going through its technical assessment process.

This proposed legislation sets up registration for those using the legal title of “social worker” and sets standards and competency for practice. To be called a social worker, one needs both the required academic qualification brought about through higher education and appropriate practice experience. In short, the country needs to professionalise the social work service, of which the Social Workers Act is only a necessary beginning.

In summary, a statutory agency, that is a “Care Services Commission” needs to be considered, whose regulatory duties embrace “fitness to practice (people) and fitness to operate (organisations)” criteria. We would benefit from enacting legislation to ensure there are suitably qualified and professionally trained social workers in this country. I hope therefore, that you are able to review the current draft legislation with the aim of expediting parliamentary approval. It has been delayed through endless bureaucracy for far too long.

In the longer term, the way which social work and welfare services are provided could benefit with further decentralisation and localisation “at the point of delivery” for greater accountability and transparency. This bold re-organisation could compliment PH’s longer term plans to restore local government elections and accordingly, give greater duties and powers to Local Authorities. In my view, local communities often know what they need and the best ways to provide for those needs. 

I have attached an Appendix (see below) which provides some background and context around my concerns. I am a member of the Malaysian Association of Social Workers, an organisation that has been campaigning on the issues above although this letter is written in a personal capacity.

Finally, I would be delighted to provide further clarification and details if necessary.

Yours sincerely

Jim Lim Teik Wah

Read more about Jim here.

APPENDIX: Social Workers’ Act and social care services regulation

Social workers, despite years of trying to “be heard” have been unsuccessful in securing the previous government’s commitment to the required legislation to professionalise their status and the consequent steps towards regulating the social care sector.

Social work is a professional activity recognised throughout the world but unfortunately, the roles and functions appear least understood in our country. In addition, social workers often deal with complex problems affecting individuals and families and those problems, or its resolution or treatment can carry considerable social stigma.

There are six universities in Malaysia running undergraduate degree programmes in social work and a shorter Diploma in Social Work programme at a further education college in KL commenced a year ago. 

In spite of this and despite international recognition for our local social work professionals, both in academia and in practice, there have been little progress achieved in terms of formal recognition or, in terms of “professionalising” the service, and with it, the standards, quality and regulation that follow.

What is the current state of play?

Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (under the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development) is the statutory agency for a range of generic welfare services dispensing services and, intervening into the lives of individuals and families, principally “to protect, to assist and provide”. In addition, there are numerous voluntary organisations (NGOs) providing a wide range of services and to a many sections of the community. Malaysians are fortunate to have the many voluntary and charitable services evolving from its diverse religious and temperate societies.

However, there is a need to improve overall service delivery and this concerns public safety. How is the public to understand or be assured of a service which at the moment does not subject itself to inspection or regulation? For some services there is minimal registration for administrative purposes only but not regulation in terms of service standards and quality. 

As social work services are often delivered by “people to people” directly, is it not reasonable that we understand the professional ethics which govern its practice and ensure there is appropriate regulation over their professional conduct and suitability or fitness for practice of the social work practitioner, in the same way of doctors, dentists, nurses and other Para-medical staff?

The draft Social Workers Act which I believe is currently undergoing its technical appraisal processes have been rigorously ‘peer-examined’ too. In my view, this important piece of legislation is long overdue. 

The Act essentially legalises the job title of “social worker” and sets out mandatory standards for qualification as well as practice competencies. In line with many developed countries, it is time Malaysia join the wider community of social work.

There are numerous areas for improvements and existing social policies covering vulnerable adults, the elderly and children and families can benefit for an updated review and assessment as to its take-up as well as effectiveness. Some may require “replacement legislation” to reflect and accommodate the rapid social changes.

What is essentially the concern for social workers?

To simply put it, “social work intervention and social work services” fall under 2 distinct categories, warranting action and service provision.

The first covers services “safeguarding and protection” and,

The second is concerned with “maintaining dignity and enriching lives”

Safeguarding and protection services would be particularly relevant for children who are abused, families under stress, living with disabilities as well as vulnerable adults with disabilities. 

Maintaining dignity and enriching lives would relate to people with severe handicaps, elderly people living with dementia and in some cases, marginalised communities.

At present, most social work intervention is effective when there is high quality practice or professionally competent services, supported by well managed teams and organisations. Social workers must be “competent” in undertaking assessments and formulating plans working with relevant multi-disciplinary agencies and client/user groups. Social workers can make a difference to people’s lives working in different settings, statutory (government, judicial, educational) and non-statutory (social, community, NGO).

The main concern of social workers throughout the country is formal recognition of the work they do or can do. They are operating without formal professional recognition and often, other public service agencies fail to appreciate their role. The public can be at risk if there is no formal register which bars those unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable people. The recent Sexual Offenders Act is a case in point although there has not been any evaluation published since.

The short-term: To urgently have the draft Social Workers Act passed by Parliament. Equal Consideration must be given to establishing the institutional resources to effectively fund and manage the implications and consequences arising from the Act. To introduce appropriate regulation to the social care sector to protect the public.

The longer-term: To reorganise current “institutional” welfare provision with the aim of decentralisation or localisation of services to the respective state level. 

• I presented a paper on “social services planning” with the theme of decentralising services to local level at an ASEAN conference on Child Protection in KL in November 2012. Read here.

The longer-term may also focus on further education and training matters and the setting up of a working framework for inspection and regulation of establishments, centres and homes as well as statutory mechanism for vetting and barring schemes on suitability. 

I know that this may appear a long wish list but as social work had been accorded scant attention in the past, the new Government must try to “catch up” in order to help raise standards and improve responses and services to all categories of vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens.

• There was a study by external consultants commissioned by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia with their findings report for consultation in March 2017, called Innovating Malaysia’s Social Sector. This study attempted to calculate financial costs in social interventions and services and my criticism is that it hardly mentioned social workers or to the many unsung heroes working in the social care sector. The results or outcomes of this study have so far not been shared.

A treasure I cherish

ROSELY AHMAD is someone we bumped into in the Down Memory Lane (DML) group on Facebook. Like our merry band of former schoolmates, he is a child of the 1960s. We were amazed by his fantastic recollection of a particularly memorable incident that occurred to him during his schooldays at Westlands School. He said we could use it in this blog and thus, here it is:

A TREASURE I CHERISH by Rosely Ahmad 

I got this when I won a “Pop Quiz”
contest in Primary 6 @ Westlands Primary School in Penang during the School Concert Day.

There were only four contestants representing the smartest from each class and Std 6 had four classes... A, B, C and D. I belonged to Std 6D. I wasn't the smartest kid in 6D however, but I was not the dumbest either (although I was among those few from my class running for that dreaded title). I was forced to enter the contest because the smartest kid in my class suddenly got food poisoning, and at that time I happened to be on stage.

There I was on stage with the other contestants and still wearing a “gown” (if you all remember, in those days girls loved to wear gowns. If you guys are wondering why I was wearing a “gown”, it was because we had just finished an act titled “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and I was that kid that couldn't play the part of any of the seven dwarfs. Westlands was an “only boys” school.) 

Each one of us was given a question to answer, failing which he would be eliminated and the question passed to the other kid.

The teacher might have thought I would be eliminated in the first round, and yet I managed to survive till only two of us were left (me and the smartest kid of class 6A). 

I still remember the winning question. The teacher asked that kid. “Cassius Clay (at that time he wasn't called Muhammad Ali yet) is well known for boxing. What is the Malay word for boxing?”. When the “smartest kid” of 6A couldn't answer, the “not so smart kid” of 6D created history 😁

Anyway I got that book as a prize and the One Dollar note was from my dad. It still looks brand new.

Generations of connections

Lim Ewe Lee (1894-1957): Chief Clerk of the

Chinese Protectorate who had extensive

connections within the civil service in Penang.

TEIK EE was admitted into the Wellesley Primary School in January, 1929, when he was aged 5 years and 10 months. Being very young, he was rather nervous when he was ushered, together with other boys, into a room on the top floor on his first day in school. He therefore constantly went to the window nearest to him to see if Madam Cheng Sim, who very kindly undertook to take him to and from school, and I were there. For six months he was in Primary IC after which he was sent to Primary IA for another six months in which form he was awarded a prize for good conduct. After a year in Std I he was transferred on promotion to Std II, Francis Light School, whither he went on a rickshaw. Our quarters were then at Lorong Salamat. He was for a year in Std II; at the final examination in Std III, he was second boy for which he received a prize and was recommended by his teacher, Wong Ah Gnow, for double promotion to Std V. I consulted Tan Kiar Lew ([who was to become] the Headmaster of Westlands School) and Mrs G R Phipps (formerly a lady teacher in Wellesley Primary School and now [in the late 1940s] a pensioner) whom I met at the Junior Civil Service Association as to the advisability or otherwise of accepting the tempting offer. Kiar Lew replied in the affirmative but Mrs Phipps said that in her experience some boys who received such promotion turned out to be good while in other cases progress was retarded in the upper classes. I sifted the pros and cons and came to the conclusion that the Headmaster-to-be and the teacher would not have made the recommendation if the boy had not merited it. He went to Std V under Cheah Teong Lip. On the second day of the first moon I was surprised to see him crying and I asked him the reason. He said, “I don’t want to remain in Std V; I want to go down to Std IV.” He added he was spanked for not knowing elementary algebra as this subject was taught without reference to any book. I told him to see what kind of book the teacher was using so as to buy a copy. To me algebra was the worse subject. I read the examples given and taught him as far as I was able to. He got no further spanking and at the first term examination he came out with credit in algebra. The teacher was surprised and queried, “Did you copy?” Three months later I asked him if he would like to go down to Std IV and he smilingly said no. He was absent at the second term examination on account of illness. At the third and final examination he was placed, to the satisfaction of Teong Lip and myself, in the 11th position out of 144 boys and second in his class, Std VD. On 22nd January, 1934, he went to Std VI, Penang Free School. [Underlines in the text by editors.]

The anecdote above was written by my grandfather, Lim Ewe Lee (1894-1957), who retired as Chief Clerk of the Chinese Protectorate, Penang, when it was part of the Straits Settlements. It was about the primary schooldays of my father, Dr Lim Teik Ee (1923-2014), who was a well-known dentist in Penang. It is very revealing in many ways:

Ch’ng Tatt Teik: Founder of Union School
and one of the two founders of the
Hokkien Hooi Aun Association.

• First, many of those mentioned in the anecdote had some bearing on the lives of the Westlands Primary Class of 1965. Tan Kiar Lew was one of the first Asian headmasters of Westlands School. He lived in the area and sent many of this children and grandchildren to WPS. Wong Ah Gnow served as headmaster of WPS until 1960 when he was succeeded by K Balram. A Mrs Phipps, with her daughter, operated a three-class kindergarten at one of the small roads off Victoria Green Road. The last house of a block, the double-story link house was next to Union Primary School or Heap Hoe. There was access to its canteen via an opening in the fence. Among the students who studied there were Lim Chien Cheng, Yeo Guan Khim and me (from WPS), and Ooi Teong Siew (Wellesley). Later in Free School, a few of us became friends with Ch’ng Oon Tian who was and still is a keen photographer. Unknown to us, he had spent his primary school days at Union Primary nearby. It was a school his grandfather, Ch’ng Tatt Teik, founded. Ch’ng was also one of the two founders of the Hokkien Hooi Aun Association. At that time, in the early 1960s, Oon Tian’s aunt, Ch’ng Aun Jean, was the headmistress of Union Primary.
• Second, the civil service members, via the Junior Civil Service Association, had a lot of interaction – to the point of asking each other about intimate family matters like school promotion of their children.
• Third, corporeal punishment was treated as a matter of course. No parent would rush to school to complain or contact the media, as long as the motive of the teacher was sincere, with the welfare of the child in mind. 
• Fourth, the school system was very different then: (a) students were eligible for double promotion on the recommendation of teachers, (b) Free School admitted children for Standard VI, (c) one could enter school at “5 years 10 months”, and (d) students could be transferred from one school to another. We have been told this is part of a feeder school system for the Penang Free School. More needs to be done to uncover the system. 

© Lim Siang Jin 2018

Never caught

I HAVE a confession. I’ve been holding a little secret for more than 50 years. But it’s time for me to disclose it and get the incident off my chest.

Do you know that around the present-day fenced perimeter of the Westlands Centre for Sports Excellence is a 10 feet-wide tarred walkway? It wasn’t always tarred in the past. In fact, prior to 1963, the Westlands Primary School fence was right up till the edge of the drain that ran along Victoria Green Road and Khaw Sim Bee Road.

Then at the end of 1962, the Public Works Department called a tender to construct a walkway. In the process, the school’s perimeter fence was moved inwards.

The construction of the walkway began in January 1963. At that time, I was in Standard Four and I would be walking home every day after school. All the way from Westlands School to Seang Tek Road. Every day, I could see workers constructing the walkway, dumping gravel and then finally pouring a layer of asphalt before a mini-roller was used to compress and flatten it. A nice, dark, flattened surface around the school.

And there I was, daily, digging the heels of my shoes into the still-soft asphalt when I felt that no-one was watching. A long line of holes in the asphalt, several feet apart. The next day, the holes would have been repaired and I took delight in digging in my shoes’ heels again. This went on for days and miraculously, nobody caught on that it was little me, little 10-year-old innocent me, that was the culprit.

Then Chinese New Year arrived on the 25th of January. The school closed for several days. When I returned after the holiday break, I found that the asphalt had hardened. I could no longer make holes in the walkway. Oh well, end of my little pleasure. And that is my little secret of 55 years, now revealed. What a naughty boy.

@ Quah Seng Sun 2018

Westlands’ Northam Road connection

LET ME relate to you the story of the Northam Road Government English School and how Westlands School could trace its roots to this government English school and inter alia, to the much respected Harold Cheeseman after whom the Cheeseman Hall at Westlands was named.

For a long while, I had just a passing interest in this government school. The only information I had previously was that it was located at 11 Northam Road, Penang. However, right after my friends and I began this blog on Westlands School, I realised the historical connection between the two institutions. I needed to find out where exactly was this Number 11 Northam Road, especially since it didn't show at all in the present maps of George Town.

The Northam Road Government English School (NRGES, left), with 400 students, was run by Harold Cheeseman for a few months in 1922 before he became Penang's Inspector of Schools. It operated for slightly over a decade after that. In 1933-34, the students were moved to Hutchings School before ending up in the new Westlands School in 1935. The premises of the NRGES were occupied by the Shih Chung Branch School from 1938. It is now in a dilapidated state (right) awaiting its next renewal.

I started searching elsewhere and Hey Presto! guess what, here it is. Number 11 Northam Road is now where the Shih Chung Branch School once operated from. Realising that it was once the Shih Chung Branch School stirred in me an old memory. I remember that 10 years ago, I had written something about this school in my personal blog. I had even mentioned in passing that it was also used as a government English school. But it escaped me that it was THE Northam Road Government English School. It is only lately that I've managed to tie almost all the loose ends together.

What more do we know about this building? Its history is known but it is incomplete. Originally belonging to the two Cheah brothers, Tek Soon and Tek Thye, the building was bought up by Tye Kee Yoon. Between 1908 and 1920, the building was used for various purposes. At the start, it was used as the Chinese Consulate but later, the Tye family leased it out for use as the Bellevue Boarding House. In 1910, RN Brunel-Norman took over the boarding house and called it as Raffles-by-the-Sea, or simply Raffles for short. However, due to constant confusion arising from the hotel bearing a name similar to that of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, Brunel-Norman was forced to re-name his establishment as Hotel Norman in Sept 1912. He was to continue the hotel business for another two years. By Dec 1914, having made up his mind to leave Penang, he put up his hotel under the auctioneer's hammer. Maybe Brunel-Norman was not able to find a buyer because within a few months, that is, in 1915, the building had entered a new phase as the P'i Joo Girls School until 1920.

According to Dr Kim Phaik Lah, former Associate Professor at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang: “P’i Joo Girls School was a pioneer Chinese girls school in Penang. Established in 1915, its three principals were educators from China. At its height, there were more than 250 students. The school, however, closed down in 1920. The same year, Fuchien Girls School (now Bin Hua or Penang Chinese Girls High School), was founded. Mdm Chee Yuet Wah, the first principal of Fuchien Girls, was a student of P'i Joo Girls.”

This report below comes from the Penang Heritage Trust website:

The once-stately mansion of Goh Chan Lau, which means “Five-Storey Villa”, was built by the brothers Cheah Tek Soon (Xie Deshun) and Cheah Tek Thye (Xie Detai). Cheah Tek Soon’s daughter Cheah Liew Bee (Xie Liumei) was married to Goh Say Eng (Wu Shirong), a fervent supporter of Sun Yat Sen. It was said that Goh Say Eng had persuaded the Cheah family to sell off the villa to financially fuel the revolutionary activities of Sun Yat Sen.

In 1908, the villa passed into the hands of Tye Kee Yoon (Dai Xiyun), the Chinese Consul in Penang, who turned it into the Chinese Consulate. After the 1911 Revolution, his son Tye Phey Yuen (Dai Shuyuan) became the first Consul of Republican of China in Penang.

In 1915, the brothers Leong Eng Kean (Liang Enquan) and Leong Yin Kean (Liang Yingquan) rented the upper floor of the bungalow as the premises for the P’i Joo Girls’ School, which was forced to shut down when the Education Bill of 1920 was put into effect.

The Shih Chung Branch School, founded in 1938, occupied these premises until 1994.

I shall now attempt to fill in this blank with the unknown history of Goh Chan Lau from 1920 to 1938 but first, I shall reproduce this excerpt from a news report in The Straits Times of 19 Aug 1922:

PENANG SCHOOLS: Solving the Accommodation Difficulty

The Government has now taken over the fine-looking and commodious building, No 11 Northam Road, that was formerly the Hotel Norman and more recently, a Chinese Girls' School, on a three years' lease, in order to provide accommodation for children for whom no room can be found in the other schools at the present time. This arrangement, we are informed, is only a temporary one pending erection of permanent Government buildings.

This new establishment which is styled "Government English School" has accommodation for 600 children if necessary, but if that number is admitted arrangements will have to be made for extra teachers, etc. At present the number in attendance totals about 400 and there is, we hear, accommodation for 30 or 40 more children. The boys are all in the primary classes and under the charge of Mr HR Cheeseman, formerly of the Free School, who is as everyone knows a fine disciplinarian, and keen sportsman and indefatigable volunteer. The site and building are admirably suited to the purpose, indeed a better location in Town could not have been selected. The house stands in a large compound, one side of which is sufficiently spacious for drilling and even a football match.

The Towkays from whom the place is leased to Government are Messrs Thye Chee Tean and Tye Shook Yuen, the executors of the estate of the late Mr Tye Kee Yoon, Chinese Consul in Penang. In his will the late Mr Tye Kee Yoon bequeathed certain sums for charitable and other purposes. The executors of his estate have consequently been able kindly to promise to subscribe $50 a month towards the school funds as long as the Government holds a lease from them, as a token of respect for the memory of the late Chinese Consul and in accordance with his wishes.

The Government, we learn, intends to erect new school buildings in Green Lane, and when these have been completed, in about a couple of years' time, the older boys in the Free School will be transferred to them, leaving the present buildings (i.e. the Free School) in Farquhar Street for the elementary classes. It is also under contemplation to erect a new school in Perak Road about a year hence which will also be devoted to elementary education. There will be sufficient playgrounds at these schools for the boys' recreation.

So you can see here the connection of Harold Cheeseman with the Northam Road Government English School. However, Cheeseman stayed with the school for just a mere five months as he was soon transferred to become the Settlement's Inspector of Schools. The Government English School used the 11 Northam Road premises right until the end of 1933. On 11 Dec 1933, the school organised its last annual prize giving ceremony, which was reported thus in the Malaya Tribune of 14 Dec 1933:

The Government English School, Northam Road, held its annual prize giving on Monday when a very creditable entertainment was staged by the pupils. 

Mrs O'Sullivan gave away the prizes, and was thanked by Mr Hamid Khan, the headmaster, who said that during the year work had commenced on a new school to be built at Westlands to take the place of the present school and it would be ready for occupation next year.

Besides recitations and action songs, Mr Tan Thean Seng's squad gave a fine exhibition of ju-jitsu and boxing. Five second-year Malay boys appeared in a short play entitled "Ja'afar and The Thief" and acquitted themselves with distinction, their enunciation being exceptionally good.

Despite Hamid Khan's confidence about the Westlands School being ready for occupation in 1934, we now know that the intake of new boys into Westlands School only began in 1935. During the one-year interim period between the Northam Road Government School closing at the end of 1933 and the Westlands School opening in 1935, the boys were transferred to Hutchings School to continue their education. This short news item in the Singapore Free Press And Mercantile Advertiser of 10 Mar 1934 related what happened:

NEW ENGLISH SCHOOL: $50,000 Scheme Launched in Penang

The Government are building a new Elementary English School at Westland (sic), Burmah Road. The approximate cost is to be $50,000. Work has been started and is expected to be finished by the end of December next. The school will have accommodation for 600 pupils. A cricket pitch, tennis courts, badminton courts, etc, will be laid on the site, which is seven and a half acres.

The new school will replace the Government English School at Northam Road, which is now empty, as the boys are transferred to Hutchings school.

After the Northam Road Government English School moved out, it was not known what exactly had become of the building in the next few years except that the executors of the estate of Tye Kee Yoon would have retaken control of the premises.

In Oct 1937, it was reported by the Malaya Tribune that the building was under-going demolition. Actually, the five-storey building was not being demolished but just under-going renovation work in preparation for its next phase as the premises of the new Shih Chung Branch School which was established in 1938. The Shih Chung Branch School has an equally interesting history but researching this must be someone else's project, not mine. I won't cover it here.

Below is the earliest image of the Westlands School that I could find, taken in February 1935:

© Quah Seng Sun 2018

Tan Kiar Lew, Headmaster (1939-51)

Tan Kiar Lew (right) with his eldest daughter Tan Ghim Chin,

youngest son Tan Teik Boon and grand daughter Tan Chui 

Peng. Chui Peng is Teik Boon's eldest daughter — 1973

This short biography of Tan Kiar Lew, one of the first Asian headmasters of Westlands School, shows the diverse interests of teachers of those days — in the subjects they taught, in extra-mural activities of the school and in Penang society as a whole. One of Tan’s sons, Tan Teik Beng, also had an illustrious career in education, holding such positions as Chief Education Officer in Johore, Penang and Selangor. The following is written by his youngest son, Tan Teik Boon, who worked with Shell.

Tan Kiar Lew with eldest grandson Tan Seang Hock in Hong 

Kong, Nov 1979. Seang Hock, like many of his other family 

members, went to Westlands Primary, then Penang Free 

School. Seang Hock's years in those schools were 

WPS (1958-63), PFS (1964-70)

Mr Tan was born in 1896 and he started work at the age of 19. He taught at the Penang Free School which was situated in town before it moved to Green Lane. He taught mainly English and his favourite subject, mathematics. His forte was in numbers and calculations, as he excelled in this field.

He was very active in scouting as a student and as a teacher. He attended scout jamborees locally as well as overseas and played a very active leadership role in this field.

He was transferred to be the Headmaster of Westlands School in 1939. He continued his active life in the school and brought about many changes to improve the school building, education, sports and extra-mural activities.

The May 1939 issue of the Penang Free School magazine says:
"Early this year, Mr Tan Kiar Lew left us to take up his
appointment as Headmaster of Westlands School. He has been
with the school for a long time, having taught for a period of
twenty-six years. We are proud of his promotion and extend
our best wishes to him."

An important activity introduced was Indian club swinging for the students. It gained popularity and was a spectacle in town — especially with the lights attached to the clubs swinging in unison in the dark at night concerts and exhibitions. Mr Teoh Chooi Hor (“water tiger”) was the teacher who brought up the school in this spectacular display.

His headmastering period was interrupted by World War Two, when the Japanese used the school for their own purposes. Mr Tan had to use the Japanese language for the then office administration, thanks to his earlier education in the Chinese language. He could interact the use of the two languages well.

He resumed as Headmaster of the school after 1945 and started to rebuild the school to its glory in 1946 till he retired at end-1951. The old teachers then included Bobby Goh, Abah Rahmes, Sheik Ji, Tang Gooi Kong, Lim Kean Chye and Teoh Chooi Hor.

Apart from education, Mr Tan was also active in public service activities during the pre-retirement and post-retirement period. He was active in the Penang Rotary Club, the Junior Civil Service Association, Hu Yew Seah and the Tan Kongsi. He also served in the Penang Cooperatives Society and the Penang Buddhist Association committees.

Mr Tan passed away in 1988, aged 92.

Golden Wedding Anniversary of Mr & Mrs Tan Kiar Lew: Mr Tan (in the dark suit) speaking to Datuk Koh Sin Hock at the celebration. On the left was Mrs Tan (Mdm Lim Chin Kim). The man giving a speech was Tan Sri Saw Seng Kew. The other person at the table was Mr Tan Cheng Tit, Tan Sri Saw's brother-in-law. The event was held on 27th December 1967 at the Chopsticks Restaurant, Hotel Ambassador, Penang Road 

Harold Cheeseman

IN MY opinion, there was more to it than simply naming the new hall at Westlands School after the retired Director of Education, Harold Ambrose Robinson Cheeseman (b.1890, d.1961). The connection between Cheeseman and Westlands School went far deeper than just the hall, as I will reveal in a later blog story.

In case anybody suggests that I have a fixation about Cheeseman in this Westlands School blog, perhaps I should explain that the influence of the former Malayan Director of Education loomed large in the annals of Education of this country. He wasn't just a Director of Education, or in his younger days, arriving at Penang Free School as an assistant master on an initial three-year contract, an Inspector of Schools in Penang or Chief Inspector of Schools who travelled all over British Malaya and the Straits Settlements.

There were two phases in Cheeseman's distinguished career in the Far East. The second phase was when he was an administrator in the Malayan civil service, beginning with his appointment as the Inspector of Schools in Penang. The first phase started as he arrived in Penang, fresh-faced and carefree as an 18-year-old lad, looking for adventure of sorts, no doubt.

Unlike the other European masters of his time at the Free School, he didn’t possess any academic degree and wasn’t armed with any professional qualification. But we’ve got to admire the man for his grit and determination because once his value was recognised by the British powers-that-be, he rose to the highest position in Education ever attained by a civilian or public servant.

While at Penang Free School from 1907, he was described by the former headmaster, Ralph Pinhorn, as a man with indefatigable energy. Very much interested in the outdoors and extra-curricular activities, he initiated the Scout movement in Penang Free School and encouraged St Xavier'’s Institution and Anglo-Chinese School (now the Methodist Boys' School) to start theirs too.

Cheeseman was a person most admired among the Scouters and even FC Sands, the Scout Commissioner for Malaya, looked at him with respect. Sands wrote once: “There is a man in Penang of whom I am terrified, and the words of wisdom which I utter will probably not impress him at all. He will probably 'turn and rend' me. However, I have the advantage (a mean one, doubtless) of being able to get the last word, and that gives me courage.”

He also started the Penang Free School Magazine in 1909, a publication which set the trend for other schools in the Straits Settlements and British Malaya to follow. The school magazines were produced periodically and wholly owned by the boys. By the way, Cheeseman's popular nickname among the schoolboys was, you guessed it right, “Orang Keju.” It was all in good fun but nobody else would have dared call him that except the boys he had taught.

During the first phase from 1907 till 1922, Cheeseman was:

• Employed initially as Assistant Master at Penang Free School on a three-year contract (1907);
• Appointed to command both the Penang Free School Cadets (from 1907) and Scouts (from 1915);
• Elected Secretary and treasurer of the Penang Football League (1912);
• Elected Vice-president of the Penang Literary Society (1915);
• Made Second Lieutenant of the Chinese Company (D Company) of the Penang Volunteer Corps (1916);
• Elected Vice-president of the Penang Schoolmasters' Athletics Association (1916); 
• Appointed Headmaster of Northam Road Government English School (Aug 1922);
• Considered the catalyst that set up The Old Frees' Association (Oct 1922).

Cheeseman was assimilated into the Straits Settlements civil service with the taking over of Penang Free School by the Government in Jan 1920. Subsequently, when he was transferred out from Penang Free School in Aug 1922, he was appointed as the first headmaster of the new Northam Road Government English School. He was at the helm of this new school for barely a few months before his abilities then taking him into the administrative side of education in which he remained for the next 41 years.

“In 1923, he became Inspector of Schools in Penang, and seven years later was the first Superintendent of Education in Johore, a new post which had been created in an enlightened State which desired to be as rich in education as it was in rubber,” according to a story in The Straits Times of 10th Dec 1948 to report his retirement. [Note: It was not seven years, as mistakenly reported by the newspaper, but five years between his appointments as Inspector of Schools Penang and Superintendent of Education Johore.]

From 1923 till the onset of the Japanese Occupation, Cheeseman was:

• Appointed Inspector of Schools in Penang (Jan 1923);
• Appointed Commissioner of the Boy Scouts in the Settlement of Penang (June 1923);
• Made Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute (Nov 1923);
• Appointed a member of the Board of Examiners in Languages (for Malay) for Penang (Jun 1923);
• Elected as Committee Member of the Penang Library (Mar 1924);
• Appointed Unofficial Trustee of Penang Free School (Mar 1924);
• Appointed Supervisor of Education, Johore (Mar 1928);
• Appointed Inspector of Schools, Singapore and Labuan (Apr 1934);
• Appointed Chief Inspector of Schools, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States (Jun 1937);
• Appointed Deputy Director of Education, Malaya (Sep 1938);
• Elected President of the Singapore Rotary Club (July 1941).

At the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya in Dec 1941, Cheeseman was already the Deputy Director of Education. When he was interned at the Changi Gaol and Sime Road Camp in Singapore, he organised lectures and camp schools for the adult interns and their children, numbering around 3,000 in all, at what was loosely referred to as the Changi University until the purge of the Double Tenth incident of 10th Oct 1943 put a stop to them. [Read a little about Cheeseman’s experience during his internment here.]

After the surrender of Japan in September 1945, Cheeseman resumed his work in the Education Department and soon afterwards, he was elevated to the post of Director of Education of the Malayan Union and later, the Federation of Malaya. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the King’s New Year Honours List of 1947. He retired in Dec 1948 and settled down in Kent, England. Cheeseman died in the town of Ramsgate in Nov 1961, aged 71.

© Quah Seng Sun 2018