CONTINUING IN MALAY SCHOOL

I do not remember exactly why I left Malay School Ulu Yam Bharu and transferred to Malay School Ulu Yam Lama. Perhaps it was because Kak Long had completed her standard 6 and had to go Sekolah Melayu Rasa to go to standard 7 as there was no standard 7 in Malay School Ulu Yam Bharu. Since Kak Long was no longer in the same school perhaps I thought it was no longer safe for me there as she had protected me against the bullies.. In fact I have another elder sister Zaleha whom I call Kak Uteh. She too left the school to concentrate on religious education at the Arabic school in the afternoon. She hoped to become an ustazah (a religious teacher). Perhaps another reason was that mother had accepted a job as a helper to a family who lived in Ulu Yam Lama. Her employer was a police corporal and his wife a school teacher and they had a few children. Mother had to live with them. After my father died mother remarried and they had a son. However the marriage did not last long and I do not remember this step father of mine at all. By the time I went to my new school my half- brother was going to start school. Since he lived with mother who lived with her employer at Ulu Yam Lama it was best we went to the same school so that I could keep an eye on him.

For a while I walked to school. The school was about two kilometers from the house. To go to school we had to take a gravel road built by the mining company which operated a dredge in the locality. It was very hot in the afternoon when we went home after school. Imagine my surprise when mother said she had bought me a bicycle. What happened was that she received some money from the Government. It had to do my father’s death and that he was a government servant. It could be a gratuity from the Government. Mother bought herself a sewing machine which became very useful for the family.

To earn extra money I had to sell cakes in school like what my Kak Long did. I enjoyed the experience particularly having money in my pocket although it was only for a short time because I would surrender the money, all of it,  to mother when I got home. I had an added responsibility in the business. For making kueh ketayap or kueh gulung we had to have coconut flesh as an ingredient. I had to climb the coconut palm and pluck the coconut. It was not an easy task. The coconut must not be too young or too old. I had to shake the fruit to find out how much water there was in the fruit. If it was full of water and   heavy then it was still very young and this was good to take if you wanted to drink the coconut water. Only if the fruit is about three quarter full of water then it was good for making kueh ketayap.
Mother also washed and ironed the uniforms of the bachelor policemen who worked at the police station where her employer was the officer in charge (OCS). This brought her an extra income. I can see that at that time mother had already practised the concept of multi-skilling.

Kak Long was lucky when she went to Rasa to do her standard 7. Rasa was some distance away probably 10 km from where we lived. It meant she had either to travel by bus daily to go to school or find accommodation in Rasa. Either would cost money which mother could not afford. There was a teacher when we were in Ulu Yam Bharu school by the name of Cikgu Abdul Razak bin Abdul Hamid (now Dato’). His beautiful wife Cikgu Zahrah was also a teacher at the same school. They liked my sister because she was good in her studies and she was active in extra-mural activities. She was an active girl  guide. I remember she also acted as the heroine in a school play. Cikgu Razak was in charge of the boy scout and girl guide movement of the school. It was Cikgu Razak who produced the play Cindralela in which Kak Long played the leading role. So Kak Long and Cikgu Razak’s family bonded well. It was this special relationship that resulted in Kak Long living with Cikgu Razak’s family in Rasa when she went to the Rasa Malay School. Cikgu Razak by then had been transferred to the Rasa School from Ulu Yam Bharu. Subsequently our family and Cikgu Razak’s family became friends. We are extremely grateful to him and his late wife Cikgu Zahrah. Had it not been for their help in providing accommodation to Kak Long she would probably not have been able to continue her education to standard 7. By the grace of Allah Kak Long did well in her studies and was appointed a trainee teacher. As if God wanted to make things easier for me she was posted to my new school. Imagine my pride, I had a sister in the teaching staff of the school. She came back to live with us. Cikgu Razak perhaps because of kindness not only to us but to a lot of other people was very successful in his career. It is worth mentioning that during World War II he was taken to Japan by the Japanese Government and studied in a Japanese University. He was there when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and he miraculously survived. God had foreseen that he had a lot to contribute to mankind and should be spared. Alhamdulilah. Cikgu progressed in his career. From Rasa he was promoted to be a lecturer at the Sultan Idris Training College in Tanjong Malim, a teacher training college, the highest institution of higher learning as far as the Malays were concerned. He subsequently became a lecturer at the Language Institute, one of the teacher-training colleges established after the country achieved independence. Cikgu had taught Kak Long and now he taught my future wife who was studying in the college. He was also a lecturer in Japanese Language at the Institute Teknologi MARA. His son Tan Sri Dato’ Professor Dr Zulkifli Abdul Razak became a professor and subsequently the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. I pray for Cikgu’s  and his family’s good health and success in this world and world hereafter. Amin.

Malay School Ulu Yam Lama was smaller in my previous school. There were not that many pupils. So when I progressed to Standard 5 the class was taught by a teacher Cikgu Rahmat who also taught Standard 6. I enjoyed my time in this school. Besides being reasonably good in my studies, I was active in the scout movement. The school had a padder tennis court and I was introduced to this game. I do not know if there were other Malay schools where padder tennis was played. Padder tennis is just like tennis except that the court is smaller and  rackets were made of solid wood. Therefore when I went STAR it was easier for me to elect to play tennis. When I was in Standard 6 English was introduced as one of the subjects. I was very happy to learn English although we did very basic things. After standard 6 , I was one of the few pupils who continued to Standard 7. For that I had to go to Batang Kali which was a few kilometers away from Ulu Yam. This was no problem because I had a bicycle and I could cycle to school. I think the standard 7 in Rasa was transferred to Batang Kali because in my class I met pupils from Rasa and other towns like Sungai Selisek and Kuala Kubu Bharu. If there was standard 7 in Rasa they would have gone there in stead of coming to Batang Kali as Rasa was nearer to them than Batang Kali. 

Every student in standard 7 had the ambition of becoming a teacher, first as a trainee teacher then if one passed the entrance examination of entering the Sultan Idris Training College. Upon graduating from the College one would become a trained teacher. I was no different. My late father was a graduate of that College and I wanted to follow suit. Kak Long too had always wanted to go to the Malay Women Training College (MWTC) in Melaka. I remember how she cried one day coming back from school and cried almost the whole day. It transpired that she failed the entrance examination to join the MWTC.   She subsequently followed what was known as “normal teacher training”. This meant that she attended training on week-ends for a period of time. Upon passing the examination she became a " normal trained teacher". Later on in her career she sat for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination and passed it. I knew all along that she was bright and if she had the opportunity would have  qualified to go to university.