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My Malay Teacher

 


As the medium of teaching was in English, schools decided to have  Malay classes to prepare students to be conversant in Malay for the impending change of the medium of instruction in schools to Malay. When Malay was introduced initially it was taught part-time as an afterthought in English schools. Neither the teachers nor the students realised that English would be replaced with Malay as the medium of instruction very soon.The Government introduced a scheme to assist senior officers to learn the language by providing an allowance of RM50/= to engage a Malay teacher. I was given a list of teachers that I could select. I selected one that was near my home to save travel costs. 


On the first day I joined the class, I was introduced to three other civil servants who had come for the same purpose. To test the  level of competency of each student, he said he would conduct oral exams and invited each of us separately to an adjoining room. And so each of us was interviewed and questioned in Malay on various topics. At the end of the interview, he informed us that we had sufficient knowledge to pass the Government examination and he was confident that we would be able to clear the examination with ease. He added that since the Government had approved an allowance for six months, he would claim the allowance but would not conduct classes. He proposed that we share the allowance provided by the Government. We consented  to his proposal and went over to the Malay teacher’s house at the beginning of each month to have cakes and a drink and to collect our share of the fees the teacher collected.


All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com


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