THE Sultan Abdul Hamid College (SAHC) achieves its century-mark this year at a time of swirling debate over Mathematics and Science vis-à-vis lingual skills.

A wider backdrop highlights the bigger issues. Firstly, our education system needs a culture of discussing substantive politics. The lack of it is ampli- !ed by our collective handling, as a nation, of the aftermath of the conclusive March 8 elections. This de- !ciency shall manifest itself as Parliament resumes business today. The second issue revolves around the self-esteem of some teachers in prosperous areas. Coupled with the perceived quality of our schools, these, in turn, provide the basis for the business module of private schools. Thirdly, the innocuous children of ours would be telephoning their friends at the age of six but a year later, they are forcibly separated due to grading of schools unilaterally deduced by parents. This is a result of a national-school system that is Malay-centric; and because some parents are consumed with the concept of mother tongue amidst rapid globalisation. For an idea ofwhat the future portends, let us revisit 1975 when I was taken in a beca (trishaw) to the treelined SAHC in Alor Star with its ‘haunted’ nooks that we were told were torture chambers during the Japanese Occupation 30-odd years previously. Despite the brilliant architecture and ambience of trees and wide spaces, there was never an enlightened discussion in school until we got to Forms Six. The enrolment re”ected the predominantly Malay population of Kedah. Nobody remembers the real name of ‘Leh Bodo’ which was the nickname of the best rugby and football coach we ever had. Also a classy historian, hismethod of drumming history into one’s consciousness was to smack our back and transmit this indictment into your soul – ‘Bodo’. This is a Northern word that relates to chronic imbecility. By the way, what language was Mathematics taught in? Anyone, please? The stories of Roy of the Rovers and Hamish Balfour were the ‘Anglo-Scottish ’ reasons for the crowd at our college’s smaller Stuart Library every day. K.B.Menon (PakMenon) wrote Chemistry textbooks in English. Othman Talib (Man Talib) taught Bahasa Melayu. An incident took place in Form 2B of 1976. In some cases, as Man Talib explained, the letter “i” could be adorned with two dots, not one (a diacritic) Kamaluddin Adam or Tok Adam was asked to examine the fate of “j”: Should it deserve its second “dot”? Man Talib removed his watch and hit the boy’s head. Tok Adam, an awardwinning architect, now merely says that given a second chance, he would have paid more attention in drama class to embellish his communication skills. Such knowledge or usage is going to be tricky amidst the merry slaughtering of languages via SMS and Internet chats. ‘Otf’ means ‘on the ‘fone’’. ‘Lol’ is ‘laugh out loud’. ‘TPD’ is terpaksa pergi dulu (gotta go). ‘Ape cer’ is apa cerita (what’s the news?). The kids of 2008 dismiss out-of-towners as ‘mechen’ (kampung), the heartlands of this proud country of us. A group of FormFour pupils in KL is into business of designing and printing Tshirts, exemplary naturally. Adversely, this also means the likes of Zulkurnain Halim, who in 1978 made it into the Kedah Under-23 rugby team when he was in Form Four, and thus was invited to live with the family of rugby-mad principal, would !nd it dif!cult to make it into the Hall of Fame these days. The monetary- making lessons seem so much more important. I have four conclusionscum- suggestions. One, go and develop life-long relationships at school. Last year, Tok Adam, Zulkurnain, Chop Cong, Tok Arab and Shed Pele from the college started a company called Thelimajemari (Five Fingers) to cement brotherhood. Yes, future companies of schoolmates should have a multiracial sheen. Secondly, teachers who ride motorcycles to schools where parents deliver their kids in expensive cars should better themselves. Think superior# This is a perfect opportunity. Get a Master’s Degree if you already have a basic degree. Read The Economist and buy back copies of the New Yorker for RM9.90. Do something. Thirdly, young politicians, newspaper and online editors should be unleashed to schools to talk to Form Five students. The primary motivation is to parade their intellectual prowess and to inspire. Politicians should be stoned if they were to try to indoctrinate the kids. Rather. Finally, quickly introduce Mandarin and Tamil classes to national schools. GetmoreMalay and Indian children into the Chinese vernacular schools and rebrand Tamil ones to give every single school a Malaysian character with a global outlook. Rashid Yusof, on sabbatical from 24-hour journalism, is looking to dredge up a range of arguments and a smattering of ideas for the public domain. He tries to live up to the ‘Scholar, Sportsman and Gentleman’ motto of his alma mater.

Source: Malay Mail – June 23, 2008