For 100 years Sarawak under the Brooke government, the rural community was devoid of any rural teaching programme.
Sir Charles Brooke felt that it was a waste of time educating the natives because all they needed was to learn how to read and write and learn simple arithmetic, because “that was as far as he could go”.
It was during the reign of the 3rd Rajah Vyner that the government realised that Chinese and Malay communities were far ahead of the natives in terms of education.
And if nothing was done, the natives would be left far behind in terms of education and literacy.
In July 1941, with war clouds gathering over South East Asia, the Brooke government established Madrasah Melayu school to train Malay teachers but it was closed down by the Japanese occupiers.
With the cession of Sarawak to Great Britain on July 1, 1946 the new Colonial government decided to introduce a “new” rural teaching programme which would have far-reaching benefits on the rural Dayak community.
Batu Lintang Prisoner of War (POW) camp in Kuching was turned into Sarawak’s first rural teachers’ school and teachers’ college.
By December 1946, the Colonial Government had started to renovate the POW with the construction of 21 classrooms at a cost of $1 million.
The initial objective was to educate the first batch of natives from the remote interior and train them to become Rural Teacher Trainees.
Acting government printer W.J. Chater, in the Annual Report on Sarawak for the year 1947 said: “There is a widespread demand for education throughout the Colony, especially among the large indigenous non-Mohammedan section of the population for whom educational facilities hitherto have been almost entirely lacking.”
“The need for primary schools is obvious and pressing but the teachers are not available.”
Today the pioneers of Batu Lintang Teaching College (BLTC) can take pride that because of their sacrifices, they had helped to establish the foundation of an education system that developed a generation of native intelligentsia of excellence.
On July 1, 1948, Murray C Dickson was appointed BLTC’s first Principal and was supported by teacher staff such as Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, the first native Master Degree graduate who later became Governor of Sarawak, Abang Said, Lo Suan Hian, Kueh Yan Nee and Vincent Ozaraga.
In 1949 St Thomas’ School student Wong Syn Ted joined BLTC after passing his Senior Cambridge. Later in Wong Syn Ted completed a thesis on BLTC entitled “Teacher Training in Sarawak” (1948-1957) for his Diploma in Education (The Institute of Education, University of Bristol) and explained the policy’s noble benefits.
He wrote: “The work of the rural teacher is not only confined to school work. He will have to devote much of his time to community work as well. Very often he is the only educated man in the village or longhouse, and apparently he is looked upon as a community leader.
“He will be the eyes and ears of the village people concerning anything that has to do with the written word. One can imagine the village folks coming to him with letters to be written or to be read. There are countless ways in which the teacher can be of help to the village community…suffice to say that in many villages the headmen had to seek the help of rural teachers.”
Looking back, on the challenges faced by the pioneer teachers of BLTC is Joseph Aloysius Kuek who joined Syn Ted as a teacher in 1950 together with an elite group teachers, said it was a novel effort educating natives from remote Sarawak.
Now 90, Kuek who had barely passed his Junior Cambridge examinations at St Joseph’s School, had always wanted further his education so he applied to further his studies at BLTC became an “instant” teacher instead.
He reminisced: “I was studying for my Junior Cambridge exams at St Joseph’s school when Dickson gave us a talk on the teaching profession.”
“In 1950, even before the exam results I applied to study at BLTC because I wanted to complete my senior Cambridge and found that instead of becoming a student, I was asked to teach English and mathematics to the new rural students.”
Among Kuek’s first students were Kelabit teenagers Henry Jala, David Lian Tadun and Steven Berauk Batu Bala who were from the Pa Main Primary School.
The three were among the first batch of 27 of a school started by Allied Forces Major Tom Harrisson on February 2, 1946. Its headmaster was teacher-cum-evengelist “Guru” Paul Kohuan and Agan Raja, the first Kelabit to learn to read and write.
Interestingly, Agan Raja@Galih Balang and a Kenyah student Nawan Lawai, the son of Kenyah Paramount Chief Dato Temenggong Oyong lawai Jau, became the first two “Orang Ulu” (upriver natives) among the inaugural batch of 19 students to attend the BLTC.
An avid photographer who captured life at the BLTC in pictures during his stint at the college, Kuek said: “I taught native student teachers who became politicians such as Datuk Tajang Laing, Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, Tan Sri Leo Moggie and others like businessman Datuk StephenWan Ullok and civil servants Petrus Lawai Busan, Robert Sulis Ridu and Hajah Norallah.”
“I have a library of pictures of BLTC’s native students and their activities including excursions and expeditions outside Kuching.”
One of Kuek’s former students Stewart Nau Ding, who was the first Kayan district officer of Baram, recalled the days when travelling from his longhouse to Kuching took at least a week.
Stewart, 79, in his memoir “My Changing World” said that he was a naive 12-year-old student when he was sent to BLTC. He mused: “One day a Malay teacher by the name of Cikgu Abang bin Said asked a question during Malay class; ‘Berapa kali perempuan beranak dalam satu tahun? (How many times does a woman give birth in one year?)”.
“I quickly raised by hand and said: “Dua kali, Cikgu. (Twice, Sir.) There was an uproar of laughter in the class.”
Stewart joked that on his first day at BLTC he went to school bare-footed as was done when at the Long Tebangan school in Baram.
“The children always went around like chickens in bare-feet or ‘Kaki Ayam’ and my classmates had a good laugh.”
“However, an older Iban trainee teacher Luke Antas who undergoing the 3A teachers course whose bed was next to mine, kindly told me that I had to put on shoes as this was part of our school uniform.”
Among his duties when he was the leader of his block of classrooms was drawing up a duty roster for the work every morning on a weekly basis which included sweeping, cleaning of toilets and bathrooms, trimming of grass and maintaining the flower beds.
He added: “Luke taught me how to wash and iron my clothes. He also taught me how to make my bed and how to hang my mosquito net. He was always there to assist me as he said that I was like my own son.”
In the three years Stewart was in BLTC he became an accomplished sportsman as he loved sports, particularly athletics. He played soccer and hockey for Batu Lintang.
“Our rivals were St Thomas’ and St Joseph’s School. I represented the school in the Sarawak Athletics championship breaking the State 100 yards record of 10.8 sec by clocking 10.3 sec.”
“When I left school, I was offered to train as a 2A teacher because our British sports teacher wanted me to continue to bring sporting glory to Batu Lintang. But I was needed back home,” added Stewart who went on to complete his senior Cambridge examinations at Tanjong Lobang School in Miri.
Joseph Kuek said that BLTC teachers were more than educators, because they also supervised the student’s extra-curricular activities such as gardening and the growing of vegetables for food, and was also their friend and mentor.
The father of five graduates — Clement, Justine, David Steven and Jennifer — Kuek was later awarded a Colombo Plan Junior Fellowship to study Audio Visual aids in Education in Australia in 1956.
He helped prepare programmes broadcast on Radio Sarawak to teach English to rural schools.
Retiring in 1984, Kuek continues to take snapshots of Sarawak while he has written two books entitled “Gold Town” and “Bau: A pictorial record 1948-2017”.
In concluding, he said: “I have a book on the Melanau in the pipeline and maybe a few other memoirs which I would like to share with you.”
It is to Kuek and the pioneers of BLTC that society must learn to remember, lest we forget!
