Hopefully former Rajang Teachers College (RTC) trainees who came across and spent just a few minutes reading my article entitled “Teachers – The good, bad and ‘ugly’” in the same column last week, would kindly place me in the “good” category.
With limited teaching experience in the schools – except for two weeks of teaching practice in a Penang primary school plus three weeks each respectively in a junior and senior secondary school of the Pearl of the Orient between 1976 and 1978 – the yardstick for my teaching success or failure was the five years of slugging it out teaching “empty air” to trainee teachers in RTC (now IPG Rajang) in Bintangor.
That “empty air” was the name given by my students to the subjects such as Philosophy of Education, Psychology of Education as well as Sociology of Education and later Civics Education.
The only subject that was “full of air” was Arts Education which I taught only for four months prior to a promotional transfer to a Kanowit secondary school. And many more schools later, the principal’s name was on the timetable teaching English Language or Moral Education (Pendidikan Moral) but there were always other teachers that took over the classes.
Nevertheless, this may not be always the case, if ever or any, for other schools.
On the “empty air” and “empty talk” many trainees said I was the better one among the bad and “ugly” but more of them said I fitted well into the good one. This assessment was given to me during a big reunion in 2014 at Imperial Hotel, Kuching – 31 years after I left RTC.
Don’t ever let a student sleep in your class. Always give them something to do, hear or see; the last two means the teacher has to say or present something. Prepare many relevant jokes – these made my days as the best in “empty talk”.
So every class looked forward to hearing the various jokes or hilarious episodes and thereby learning the main item, namely the lesson object or subject. Students look forward to class activities where everyone is involved.
So in a Philosophy of Education class what do you expect the trainees to do? The lecturer needs to prepare a relevant topic for discussion, starting with a group or individual activity or activities.
The same goes for all other lessons. All must be activities-oriented. Facilitating the trainees in their deeds or run of activities is done by the lecturer.
“Jangan banyak cakap; buat banyak kerja (Don’t talk too much; do a lot of activities),”our lecturer Dr Cornelius Simmons, a chain smoker, said in his thick German-accented BM during our Philosophy of Religions class in 1976. This “edict” has helped me a lot over the years.
As a college lecturer and secretary to our teaching practice committee, I was privileged to have gone on teaching practice observations throughout the width and length of the Rajang River from its estuary in Rajang/Jerijih to the foot of Pelagus rapid in the upper Rajang and SK Nanga Mujong in Baleh above Kapit.
Our team also went to the furthest SK Engkamup along the Pakan Road in Sarikei Division where an Iban original longhouse, fastened using creepers without a piece of nail or nut and roofed with belian shingles, still stood on its stilts in the early 80s.
It was during those observations that we came across various categories of trainees and hopefully as trained teachers they have managed to upgrade themselves.
Some trainees were too nervous to start their lessons when under observation by lecturers. At one point, I advised a female trainee to drink some water first. A minute later she started her lesson and performed reasonably well. This one fell into the first two of the aforesaid categories.
A male trainee that I observed in a Durin primary school had to be advised on his “wrong” pronunciation of “h” in his BM lesson. He was teaching “adjectives” in the language using sentences. For example, he asked the pupils to say after him, “Baju itu ‘bihu’(the shirt is blue and should be pronounced as ‘biru’); seluar itu ‘mihah’ (the pair of pants is red and should be pronounced as ‘merah’).
Later in the schools since May 1983, I came across many teachers who were intent on improving their English language competency, especially those tasked with teaching of the language for junior secondary classes.
These were those not trained for the English Language classes by virtue of the fact some were just starting to read Enid Blyton books that we read in our primary classes in the mid-sixties.
Nevertheless, as the school principal, I complimented them for their efforts and even lent them more contemporary novels by Jackie Collins, Frederick Forsyth, Jeffery Archer and others.
About three months after lending her those books, a female Iban teacher who taught English Language to Form Two classes was observed by me and found that she was good, a vast improvement from my earlier observation about four months earlier.
I came across all sorts of characters among teachers and lecturers in the schools and colleges that I led between 1983 and 2005.
In the schools, one would come across teachers who applied for transfer just after a few months. For them I happily approved and in fact highly recommended the transfer to be soon but the Education Department had to cling to its policy, leaving the teachers and schools to suffer – there is no point in keeping a teacher in a school once she or he is not happy with the environment.
But there were a number of teachers, especially those from Peninsular Malaysia who asked not to be transferred for a simple reason that he or she needed the big regional allowance to settle car instalments.
For example one Cikgu Ibrahim who taught in a Julau secondary school and his wife who taught in a primary school of the same district respectfully asked a favour to remain in the respective schools at least for five years for the said reason. Anyway, both were good teachers and they remained in their schools for more than five years.
In two different schools, I came across two teachers from Peninsular Malaysia who cheated with their medical certificates (MCs). In SMK Sedaya Kanowit, a male teacher from Selangor kept on taking medical leaves because he was a good friend of one medical officer.
In SMK Julau, a female teacher from Kedah cheated by altering the writing of the doctor on her MC but forgot that the carbon copy on the opposite side whereby the writing showed the original date of her sick leave written by the doctor was two days earlier.
Another group of teachers of both gender were politically inclined and motivated that a few went AWOL during election season.
I heard even a sizeable number of primary school teachers, including headmasters, reportedly became regular culprits in this political rendezvous. Some even held the Form E and became campaign managers during polls.
It is of little wonder that some became candidates themselves from both sides of the political divides. Datuk Gramong Juna (my history teacher in 1972), Datuk Lihan Jok, Datuk Seri Michael Manyin (my colleague in RTC), Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, Rosey Yunus (my coursemate in Management Course for School Principal at Institute Aminuddin Baki Genting Highlands 1993), the late Jimmy Donald (regular poker buddy of mine) and many more are examples of teachers and headmasters/principals who have made it good in our local politics.
There are teachers who have problem with time management. They always come to school or class late but still manage a smile at the principal. So what I did was to assign special duties for this group and gave them special mentions during school assemblies and meetings. These duties would require them to be in school earlier for at least 10 minutes than the others.
From one teacher to another is a phrase that fits into my life. I seem to be stuck to the “cikgu” as my present life partner is one of them and once taught in the same Kuching school as my former spouse. Back in my Saratok longhouse I would share a drink or two with my two nephews who are both TESL degree holders. And everywhere I go, people will address me as “cikgu”, “pengajar” or just “sir” (for old school only). The tag sticks like a leech but I love it because it is not the bloodsucking type.
