Once a teacher is always a teacher, as its scouting equivalent would say the same for a scout.
I was both a teacher and scout, and later a scout leader. But only scouting dispensed me with state level prominence, though I did reasonably well in the teaching/education fraternity.
At heart I am still both, even dreaming once I was in command of about 500 scouts in a foot drill practice making formations but was awakened when barking something like, “Baris, baris sedia. Empat langkah ke depan, ke kanan p’sing !!!” (Troops troops attention. Four steps to the front, right turn!!!), I found out that I was in the bedroom at around 4am sweating but my bedmate was sleeping like a log as in Fab Four’s Hard Days’ Night sung by John and Paul.
Much earlier I woke up in the middle of a dream while doing a public canning in an emergency school assembly – five boys admitted to creating havoc in school on 4th of April, thinking it was Fool’s Day – and getting one of the male culprits to choose which cane to use on him. When he was undecided I barked an order for him to do it fast and that was when I woke up. Again my bedmate was probably in a dream of her own or was it a dreamless sleep.
One could heap and come out with endless praises on teachers who earn their kudos working 24/7, especially in boarding schools. Others are also remembered for their strict and unbending ways whereas some prevail over the others by their mannerisms, persona, charisma and attributes not to mention other minor items that become their trademarks.
In Saratok, few teachers – may their souls rest in peace – are immortalised by their special attributes and strict ways. Those who are now in their 50s and 60s would certainly remember the likes of Hilary Unsek, Rangkap Mai, Michael Abunawas, Tom Meludin, Ibraham Benang, Birai Dap and many more including those who are still around.
My former teacher Edward Gella Baul and later counterpart, now retired and has been made a Pemanca, is always remembered by a few of us in class of 1971. We always called him ‘Mr. Param’ because he always wrote ‘Param’ on the blackboard as short form of Parameswara in Malacca/Palembang history. It could be because the word was too long or that he was not 100 per cent sure of the spelling. So the ‘Mr Param’ or ‘Param’ stuck like a leech. We also remember him saying ‘Maps are the tools of Geography’ in a very distinctive Iban accent.
Another Iban teacher Edward Untie who taught us English Language in Form Three is well remembered for his fast swing of hands while walking. Small built, Untie walks very fast – he may be slowing down a bit now as he nears 70 – and is a dynamite ready to explode on the pathway. Students would say, his hand swing could kill or suffocate a fly. However that is not a hindrance for students to like and respect him. My F3 classmate Ngumbang and I used to look for difficult words – getting them from dictionaries – and asked Untie the meaning. He scored perfectly well until we asked the meaning of a word ‘agromomot’ which he could not give an answer. Kudos Mr. Untie, there is no such word in the English dictionaries. Ngumbang – he was SMK Saratok lab assistant when I headed the school in 1985 – and I invented it.
In the state popular names for various reasons, especially for being school or college principals, include the likes of Oliver Kati Dobi, Encharang Agas, Jeti Ambin, Gerald Lee, Brother Albinus, Samuel Tan, Leonard Martin Uning, Michael Manyin (Dato Sri), James Wee, Bolhan Tahir, Matnor Daim (Datuk), Adi Badiozaman Tuah (Datu), the late Jimmy Donald, Gendin Wood, Jacob Imang, Donna Babel, Maria Dris, Joseph Nuing, Belawan Embayau, Sukinam Domo, Noralah Luk and many more. These are legends during their own lifetimes. My contemporaries such as Tan Sri Datuk Dr Haili Dolhan, Datu Dr Julaihi Bujang, Mortazda Alop and Datu Abdillah Adam have made it to the state and national level management and certainly they are well remembered too. Some teachers might find they were not so lucky to be under the VTS training school, especially those who attended Rajang Teachers College in Binatang (oops Bintangor and currently IPG Rajang) between 1979 and 1983 or in secondary schools from Kanowit to Saratok, Serian, Julau, to Bau and later some colleges in Kuching.
There are three types of teachers. Firstly, there are the natural teachers, namely those who can teach without training whereas in the second group are ones who can teach with training. Sadly falling into the third type are those who still cannot teach well even with trainings. I think I fit in well with the first group.
Malaysia now fetes its teachers with Teachers Day on 16 May annually. On Tuesday last week a former Education deputy-director general took home RM40,000 cheque for winning the Education Leadership Award during the 46th National Teachers Day held in Johor Bahru.
As in other careers, the key words in the teaching profession are dedication, commitment, responsible, caring, tolerance and zillions more. Nowadays teaching also falls into a high-risk and stressful job. So don’t forget some life insurance policies coverage.
I am always a teacher as everywhere I go, people will always address me as ‘pengajar’, ‘cikgu’ or ‘sir’. The cikgu tag is for life.
Lastly, to be a good teacher, one must have the will, not necessarily all the skills. Most skills can be acquired but there must be a will to reinforce them. A skillful and a willing teacher is an accomplished one, especially if equipped with the numerous vital keywords. Teachers should consider imparting knowledge to the chosen targets is a responsibility and obligation, not a job. This is how I see it. Teachers who perform their duties because they ‘makan gaji’ will likely to get perpetually stressed because of interminable duties. However, those who are proactive and enjoy doing their duties will find that teaching is enjoyable, fruitful and rewarding, not in ringgit and sen terms but far beyond.
While teaching English Language to a few groups of unemployed graduates under the Graduate Training Scheme (GTS) of the Ministry of Human Resources from 2003 to 2005 in Kuching, I brought in games as Scrabble and Numero Uno as well as Monopoly to the classrooms. These were not in the syllabus of the ministry but were used as ‘teaching aid materials’ and as such those university graduates started to learn terminologies used in the respective games. In teaching ‘Nouns’ and ‘Adjectives’ I told them to go out for an hour around King Centre and come back with 30 nouns and 10 adjectives.
They certainly enjoyed the unconventional methods that I employed and I enjoyed teaching them too. Teachers in schools may face constraints to practise creativeness to some extent but creativity in a teacher, if allowed to expand, can make the teaching world a much better place for both students and teachers alike; at least that’s how I see it. Belated Happy Teachers Day to my former teacher trainees, students, colleagues, all teachers and educationists out there!!!
