It started off with a handful of us. Derived from various Malay Schools from a vast Malay Agriculture Reserve Land of Coconut Plantations, spanning from Kampung Tanjung Bayan on the bank of Sungai Bernam to Bagan Datoh on the mouth of Sungai Perak. We were the pioneer group of Malay students selected for the Special Malay Class stream at a newly established GES - Government English School, Hutan Melintang, on The Lower Perak District.
Moving to a new school on the 1st week of January 1952, was a week full of anticipation for most of us: Abdul Aziz Abas, Ariffin Nordin, Yusoff Atan, Mohd.Noor Dom, Razak Shafie, Zubir Yahya, Shahidan, Shahuri, Kamal Yahya, Nordin Sabran, M.Noor Ismail, Musa Muhammad, Shiratuddin Kadir, Musa Radzi, Zambahari Safawi, Abdullah Bakir, Kamaruddin Taib and Ismail Shaari. It was a week of meeting new faces and making new friends. Soon the number grew with additional pupils from other GES following their parents posting to various Government Departments at Bagan Datoh, Simpang Empat and Hutan Melintang. Most of them were the children of either The Police, Marine, Custom& Excise and Forestry Departments.
The school building itself comprising 2 classrooms a Latrine and a Tuckshop,built on a piece of vacant land adjacent to the renowned Sekolah Melayu Hutan Melintang. Although newly built, it lacked luster. The school situated some 500 meters away from the main road with a small compound. A plot of uncultivated land about 2 acres adjacent to it, a secondary forest covered with tall lalangs and some trees, soon turned out to be our special playground, a suitable location for “Main Perang Jepun” and for after school playing hide and seek activities.
It was a new environment and a rought beginnings for most of us. Some of us walked or cycled to school, while others travelled on the morning bus from Bagan Datoh and its outline kampongs, some 16 miles away. We had a Mr MacKenzie a Scottish for a Head Master. Mr Ghazali and Miss Rokiah as class teachers and Pak Din a midget as an office assistant.
The first 2 years was not much of a serious study, except we were supposed to converse only in the English Language during school hours. Those caught conversing in their mother tongue would be fined 5 cents or punished by doing cheap labours sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets. Of course 5 cents was a big money then, and doing cheap labours including cleaning the toilets were not our piece of cake. Instead in the classroom the we were all well behaved. No chatting to each other, no fooling around, because none of us really could speak English except for a few words, like: “Good Morning Sir, Good Morning Miss Rokiah, Thank You Sir, Thank You Miss Rokiah, Good Afternoon Sir, Good Afternoon Miss Rokiah." Of course we understand the phrase “Class Dismiss”. It was the only magic phrase we really fully understood, as it was the signal for us go home.
For the first few weeks the Head Master and Our Class Teachers seem to be busy doing lots of things. We had either Reading, Recitation, Writing or Arithmetic for a full day class sessions. Sometimes we were given a football, and were allowed to use the Malay School padang the whole morning till recess time, while the Head Master & Teachers attending special briefing or meeting at the Education Office in town 12 miles away or attending other school missions.
Once we had Pak Din the midget running the school, and he was chased off by some of the girls from the Primary Class who were bigger and taller than him. Pak Din stand below 2 feet 6 inches in height. He could easily be bullied by a few plump girls from The Primary Class.
Two years later we were transferred to the new school premise – GES Sungai Sumun 5 miles away. GES Hutan Melintang ceased operation. The new GES, Sungei Sumun was also to cater students from other vanicular school in the area with full facility including quarters for the staff.
Moving to a new school on the 1st week of January 1952, was a week full of anticipation for most of us: Abdul Aziz Abas, Ariffin Nordin, Yusoff Atan, Mohd.Noor Dom, Razak Shafie, Zubir Yahya, Shahidan, Shahuri, Kamal Yahya, Nordin Sabran, M.Noor Ismail, Musa Muhammad, Shiratuddin Kadir, Musa Radzi, Zambahari Safawi, Abdullah Bakir, Kamaruddin Taib and Ismail Shaari. It was a week of meeting new faces and making new friends. Soon the number grew with additional pupils from other GES following their parents posting to various Government Departments at Bagan Datoh, Simpang Empat and Hutan Melintang. Most of them were the children of either The Police, Marine, Custom& Excise and Forestry Departments.
The school building itself comprising 2 classrooms a Latrine and a Tuckshop,built on a piece of vacant land adjacent to the renowned Sekolah Melayu Hutan Melintang. Although newly built, it lacked luster. The school situated some 500 meters away from the main road with a small compound. A plot of uncultivated land about 2 acres adjacent to it, a secondary forest covered with tall lalangs and some trees, soon turned out to be our special playground, a suitable location for “Main Perang Jepun” and for after school playing hide and seek activities.
It was a new environment and a rought beginnings for most of us. Some of us walked or cycled to school, while others travelled on the morning bus from Bagan Datoh and its outline kampongs, some 16 miles away. We had a Mr MacKenzie a Scottish for a Head Master. Mr Ghazali and Miss Rokiah as class teachers and Pak Din a midget as an office assistant.
The first 2 years was not much of a serious study, except we were supposed to converse only in the English Language during school hours. Those caught conversing in their mother tongue would be fined 5 cents or punished by doing cheap labours sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets. Of course 5 cents was a big money then, and doing cheap labours including cleaning the toilets were not our piece of cake. Instead in the classroom the we were all well behaved. No chatting to each other, no fooling around, because none of us really could speak English except for a few words, like: “Good Morning Sir, Good Morning Miss Rokiah, Thank You Sir, Thank You Miss Rokiah, Good Afternoon Sir, Good Afternoon Miss Rokiah." Of course we understand the phrase “Class Dismiss”. It was the only magic phrase we really fully understood, as it was the signal for us go home.
For the first few weeks the Head Master and Our Class Teachers seem to be busy doing lots of things. We had either Reading, Recitation, Writing or Arithmetic for a full day class sessions. Sometimes we were given a football, and were allowed to use the Malay School padang the whole morning till recess time, while the Head Master & Teachers attending special briefing or meeting at the Education Office in town 12 miles away or attending other school missions.
Once we had Pak Din the midget running the school, and he was chased off by some of the girls from the Primary Class who were bigger and taller than him. Pak Din stand below 2 feet 6 inches in height. He could easily be bullied by a few plump girls from The Primary Class.
Two years later we were transferred to the new school premise – GES Sungai Sumun 5 miles away. GES Hutan Melintang ceased operation. The new GES, Sungei Sumun was also to cater students from other vanicular school in the area with full facility including quarters for the staff.
Proper classroom lessons began to take shape. The school total enrolment had reached 300 plus students. We were in Form I when we moved in to GES Sungai Sumun. By now many new intakes from Standard 6 pupils of other vanicular schools joining us in Form 1. We had Zanariah, Shantakumari, Shahrumbi, Ikram, Rashid, Daud, Yeoh Teik Sun, BoonHong, Maniam, Dayananda, RajaAhmad and Shahriman. By 1955 we were no more the Malay boys of the Special Malay Class Grouping, instead a group of 'fully fledged' secondary students of a multiracial and co- educational English Medium School. We were proud to be the most senior in the new school. We were the Prefects, Heads Of School Teams, and most importantly all attention were given to us as we were the first batch students to sit for The Lower School Certificate Examination come 1957.
Our new Headmaster after Mr Mackenzie was a no nonsense, an ‘anti-colonial’ hot tempered bachelor from Chemor Perak - Chegu Mustapha Kimin. He was later replaced by Chegu Rahim, a family man also from Perak. Chegu Rahim was a fatherly figure and a kind person. He was a strict School administrator. He loves to use the cane, and personally overseer the class term progress reports. Each end term we were marched into his office, each displaying our Term Report Card. The 30 of us from Standard 6 were to face him one after another for his assessment beginning with the cream group from position 1 ranking, ending with those in the failure list. My normal ranking was between position 11 to 16 for each term exam. result.
He would congratulate all the high achievers for their hard works until his son Shariman turn to show his Term Report Card. That was when the caning began. For every weak performance marked in Shariman report card, mean a hard whip for his son, either on the right palm or on the buttock. All along, Shariman’s class position had always been from number 10 onwards, meaning disasters for those who stood in line behind him. More than half of the class ( including the girls ) would faced the misfortune, being caned by Chegu Rahim,The Headmaster, for every weak score in their respective report cards.
The special canning sessions on each term end, was a collective secret for most of us. No one willing to talk or complained about them. Never, even to our parents. It was something that all of us accepted as part of school education. So be it.
Looking back it was one of the most enjoyable periods for most of us - the Malay students, from The Malay Reserved Coconut Plantations or the Indians and Chinese students reciding at some British Company Estates nearby. We were the happy lots in a mixed and multiracial society. We studied, played ( and even play truant ) together. We scored 100% passed for the school first LCE examination in 1957, a record still yet to be broken.
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