Chapter 18: Primary Education

In the fifties, there was no kinder garden. Primary education began with Primary One when a kid reached the age of six. I had always longed to enter school even before reaching six. Even at the age of 5, I loved to carry school bag filled with old papers and sheets of torn calendars. My classroom was a spot under a jackfruit tree planted about 50m away from my house. After browsing the papers and the numbers printed on the torn calendars, I would packed up and returned home.

 

A typical jackfruit tree

In those days, you either enrolled into a Chinese medium primary school or an English medium primary school. My parents sent all their kids to Chinese school. I began my Primary one at Lok Yuk Chinese Primary School upon reaching six in 1958. This school then was sited in Signal Hill where Sabah Theological Seminary now stands. There were only 6 classes catering for Primary 1 to Primary 6 each. Each class had about 25 students. Students were seated two per table with a long bench also for two. As that was a co-ed school, boys were allowed to sit with boys until Primary 3 when the lady class teacher opted for a different sitting arrangement: a boy must sit with a girl. That was something all the boys found it extremely embarrassing and we disliked it a lot. At that age, girls were looked upon almost as aliens and they were totally unattractive! I remember some of us carved or drew lines at the middle of the tables and the benches and warned the girls never to cross them! It would be almost a declaration of war if that understanding was breached! That ruling was finally broken in Primary six when the class teacher allowed the students to sit with people of their choice. What a great way to end our primary education!

In those days, there was no such thing of families sending their kids for tuition. Tuition or afternoon session was only offered by the school itself in Primary six after lunch. Primary six tuition was deemed necessary as all students of this class had to sit for a government assessment examination before being allowed to go onto the secondary school.

The year in Primary six was one of the most exciting of my primary school education. Being in the final year, the students in that class were being looked upon as daiko and daije (big brothers and big sisters). The best time of the school-day was the break after the morning session ended and before the afternoon session was to start. During that time, we played all kinds of games. For the boys, "police chasing after the thieves" was one of the most liked games. Some of us who acted as the thieves thought of all the most unexpected places to hide. The thick forest at the foothill of the school was the best hideout. Some hid so well that they were never "found" by the "police" even by 2.00pm when the afternoon session commenced. By the time these "thieves" turned up on their own by 2.15pm or even later and walked into the class, it was almost certain that punishment awaited them. After being lectured and scolded, caning of the palm was to be expected. A kinder teacher would ask the "thieves" to stand for 20+ minutes before being allowed to sit down.

I would be lying if I say that I had never been punished. Still, punishment was rare in my case. I could think of one incident when I was caned a few times on my palm. That was in Primary six in 1963. The boys in the class found our male English teacher (who was a young bachelor) was particularly nice and friendly to one of the girls. He seemed to pay more attention to this particular girl. So one day, I said to her: "The English teacher loves you and wants to marry you!". She was so "traumatised" by the teasing that she cried and reported the case to the class teacher who happened to be the principal. The consequence of course was caning of the palm!

The high point of my primary school education was in 1963 when North Borneo joined with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form Malaysia. One of the major events to commemorate this occasion was a lantern procession by students in Jesselton town (now renamed Kota Kinabalu). Students in our school made all kinds of lanterns. The most common one was the 5-corner stars. The school also had a special project to make a huge lantern in the form of a crocodile about 40 ft long. It took about 25 students to carry it. The most demanding part was handled by  a few strong boys who took turn to push the jaw of the crocodile up and down throughout the procession.

Overall, I have fond memory of those years in the primary school!