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Going to School in 1946...


Both my parents were illiterate and yet they send their children to school. Until this day I could remember that day in January 1946 when I went to school when the school was reopening after the war. I remember vividly my father holding my hand and walk me to the Malay School [Sekolah Melayu Teruntun] at Jalan Gambut, Kuantan. From the shop at Wall Street [Now Jalan Mahkota] we walk across the Padang. Then along the path near the Government Office buildings and the patch of grassland to reach the school. I was then seven years old and excited and happy. When I was registered as a student my name was written as Idrus bin Abu Bakar. I was sort of shock and wondering for a while; why they did not write my name as Awang. All the while I was call Awang and never heard of the name Idrus. Then the teacher explain that my registered name is Idrus. It takes a while before I could get used to been call Idrus. In those days kids never get to see their Birth Certificate so I was totally lost. Now I have two names; Idrus at School and Awang at home and the Kampong. Until now my closed relative calls me Awang. In those days there were not that many Malay students in the English School. To get the Malay to study at the English School the British Authority at that time introduce a Special Malay Class in the English School where kids after standard two in the Malay School are move to the study in the English School, in a special class call Special Malay Class I and II. Here again my father made a very smart move by agreeing to move me from the Sekolah Melayu [Malay School] to the English School. Thus, after two years in the Malay School I move to the Special Malays Class I at the Abdullah School [English School] in Kuantan. Only after attending the Special Malay class for two years that we the Malay kids join the others starting in standard four. I study in Abdullah School until I completed my Secondary Schooling and took the Cambridge School Certificate in 1957. Because I went to an English School I not only master the English language but Bahasa Melayu as well. I became race and color blind and open minded and as patriotic as well. Had I just gone to a Malay School my future would be bleak indeed. At that time no one would want to employ you if you are not educated in an English School. Looking back my late father had a vision and that education is the best investment for his kids. 

Have a nice day.

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