My Stories from Malaysian Government Schools

All my life, I attended a public primary and secondary school. A while ago, I started thinking about some of the crap we endured as students and it made me wonder... Why didn't any of us say anything? Why did we just sit back and take it?

I'm writing this because most school-going kids these days have Internet access and a sense of good judgement, both of which are more than what I had when I was in school.

I also know that things haven't changed much since I left school almost 10 years ago. Schools still spend money on unnecessary (and ugly!) decorations and other endeavours while basic necessities are ignored, and students are still victimised when something which displeases the school authorities is said.

I hope you read this, recognize when something is not right and speak up about it.

Stinky Toilets
In my secondary school, there were 14 classes for each form and each class had about 40 students. All these 560 students shared the toilets. Not everyone had great personal hygiene, obviously, and there were of course the cheeky kids who liked vandalising stuff, so some toilet shittiness was expected.

Now, my school had an old wing and a new wing. One year, I was unfortunate enough to be placed in a class in the old wing which every student dreaded. This class was two doors away from the toilet, and every time the wind blew in our direction that year, the highly unpleasant toilet smells wafted toward us.

I know what you're thinking. Maybe the school simply couldn't afford to hire people to clean the toilets right? Wrong! The school had enough money to build a fountain in the middle of the general assembly area and it caused nothing but annoyance to everyone. Every morning, the students assembled in rows according to their classes. With the fountain in the way, students had to line up AROUND the fountain.

This was the least of our problems.

The fountain started off in an alabaster white colour. From there, it degenerated to moldy green because the brilliant people who dreamt up its construction neglected to consider hiring people to maintain it.

The worst thing about the fountain was that it caused traffic jams in the school compound especially when it rained. Parents driving into the school to pick their kids up would be stuck in there for ages, getting more and more pissed off. Instead of driving straight in and at worst, backing all the way out, they instead had to line up and drive AROUND the fountain to get out.

A couple of years later, when the school authorities couldn't take the mess any longer, the fountain got ripped out.

Now, don't you think the (possibly) thousands of dollars they spent on that contraption could have been spent paying some cleaners to wash the school toilets on a regular basis?

Heck, I've seen signs in petrol stations saying "Our toilets are washed 24 times a day." That's once every hour. Couldn't the school have done that at 12 times a day?

Not sending kids to proper classes
In Malaysia, Muslim students take Islamic classes in school and us non-Muslims go for Moral Studies. Now, I don't recall the following incident, but my mum told me the story.

One year I was in primary school, my class had no Moral studies teacher so the teachers used to make me sit in the Islamic studies class. This annoyed my mum, who brought it up at the Parent-Teachers Association meeting. Mum suggested to them that I be sent to the school library instead. Their response?

Don't send me there because I might vandalise the books. Mum argued that I'd never do that because I loved books and read a lot, but they were insistent.

After this, we learnt a 'valuable' lesson. If you bring up topics which embarrass the school at a PTA meeting, your child will be victimised. Instead of sending me to the library, each Islamic studies period, I was sent to sit outside the teachers' staffroom, in the corridor.

Ingenious Ways to Save Electricity
I don't recall how old I was when this announcement was made one morning by the Headmistress, but I do remember that I thought it was the most ridiculous rule I had ever heard.

The headmistress began by saying that the electricity bills in the school were getting more and more costly. So, every student in the school had to play a part in lowering the cost. Her wonderful new rule was that all classroom fans should only be switched on after recess at around 10.45am.

That really pissed me off, I tell ya. I could, on the spot, think of other better ways to keep the electricity bills down, but THIS is her idea? What happens to students who have Physical Education first thing in the morning? Should they sweat and melt onto their desks before recess? Why couldn't they get rid of the air conditioning in the parts of the school which didn't need it? What about cutting down on fugly deco costs and use the money to pay the bills?

These are just a few of the silly things which I recall from my school days. I'm sure there were loads of others, and you probably have your stories too. Feel free to share them here.

To the kids still in school, good luck with your public school days. It ain't gonna get easier, but at least you'll learn to fight back from a young age. Tee hee.