Years at the Convent
The title of this write-up might have prompted you to think that I could be a nun in a Convent. Or you might have thought that I was once a girl studying in a convent school. Actually I was a man teacher at the Convent Secondary School of Bukit Mertajam for a decade or so.

To be frank, I was transferred from the Bukit Mertajam High School to the Bukit Mertajam Convent Secondary School for my ‘alleged involvement’ in the boycotting of the programs organized by the school for the teachers during Saturday in the name of the ‘Professional Day’[Hari Profesional] as directed by the Ministry of Education. Like every other member of the Union, it was my obligation and also my right to support the boycott organized by our union, the NUTP (National Union of Teaching Profession).

In the BM High School there were about twenty odd teachers boycotting the program of the ‘Professional Day’ held on the Saturday, March 16, 1991. Those who had boycotted were blacklisted and they were ‘rounded-up’ to have a meeting ‘without coffee’ with the school administrators and they got a proper ‘shelling of M16’ from the administrators of the school. Subsequently, one by one was transferred OUT from the school under a ‘special operation’ devised by Mr. Tan, the Senior Assistant of the school, aimed at ‘sha ji jing hou’(杀鸡儆猴) [literally it means ‘to slaughter a chicken in front of the monkeys so as to frighten them’].

I was transferred to the Convent Secondary School of Bukit Mertajam on April 16, 1991 when a Mathematics teacher of the school,Mrs.Foo, opted for early retirement. I was informed of the transfer through a telephone call from En. Mohamed Ali from the Penang State Educational Department on April 11, 1991.

Years later I was told by Mr. Tan, the Senior Assistant who had become a principal in a secondary school. He informed me that my transfer to the Convent school was out of good faith of his so that I could be able to look after my kid who was studying at the Convent Primary School which is sharing the same compound with the secondary school. The truth was: none of my children had ever studied in the Convent Primary School. In fact all my children had studied at the Kim Sen Chinese Primary School adjacent to the school he mentioned.

For a decade I had served with six headmistresses at the Convent Secondary School of Bukit Mertajam. I had maintained a good and cordial working relationship with all the headmistresses with the exception of the last one who had made sure that I was ‘out of sight, out of mind’ after a year when she had turned from a novice to the master of the Art of 'fingered' administration via ‘finger pointing’ and ‘finger directing’.

Most of the headmistresses I served under were pragmatic in approach. They did not go for glamorous paper work or to hold unnecessary meetings just for the sake of meetings. As long as the school was run smoothly they would not exert unnecessary pressures on the staff. On the other hand the school would not run topsy-turvy even though there was no headmistress around for weeks or months; every member of the staff would be doing his or her work as if he or she was under the supervision of a virtual supervisor.

Of course, different headmistresses had a different style of doing work.

Madam Jenny Sak would inform me before hand where and when she would go for meetings or courses so that I was able to tell the others if they were looking for her. She would also brief me about the meetings and courses that she had attended so that I was aware of what was expected from her and from the school after those meetings and courses that she had attended.
Miss Oh was a soft spoken headmistress earning the respect of all of the staff as well as the pupils. Nobody had ever seen her raising her voice or losing her temper. Once, I was told by Mr. Chee, a teacher in the school, that Miss Oh was unperturbed and not annoyed at all even though a parent had banged the table in her office.

She would never retain any teacher asking for transfer of school. She believed that if a person wanted to leave the school, he or she had every right to do so.

Though Miss Oh was staying in Penang, she was among the earliest to be in school for work. She usually reached the school around 7 am. Once entering her office she would work till she went back home in the evening. In between she would never miss her teaching lessons.
Puan Hajjah Meriah was another ‘Iron Lady’ in the making. After the demise of her husband, she had to take care of the rice mill business in the evening besides supervising the school in the morning. She was a very understanding and compassionate headmistress. After knowing that Miss Ooi had to attend to her ailing father, she was excused from the invigilation of the SPM examinations for the successive years.

It was Puan Hajjah's genius 'invention' to have '3-in-1' meeting, incorporating curriculum, co-curriculum and staff meetings all at one sitting with three separate written minutes for these meetings. This was a cost and time effective measure which was a win-win strategy welcomed by all the staff.

Most teachers preferred to stay put in the Convent Secondary School of Bukit Mertajam. There were a number of teachers who only taught in this school throughout their teaching career.

Even new teachers preferred to teach in this school as discipline problems in the school were very rare and minor compared to other schools. Once, a new teacher reported for duty at the beginning of the year. I gave her a teaching timetable. After glancing through it, she said she could not teach the subjects offered in the timetable. I told her that in that case she had no choice but to go back to the District Educational Office to ask for transfer to another school. On hearing that, she hesitated for a while, and duly accepted the timetable teaching the subjects which were not her options. That year itself I had made a record of preparing the teaching timetable only once and it was to be used throughout the whole year without any alterations. Normally I had to revise the timetable several times a year.

I was very much attached to the Convent Secondary School of Bukit Mertajam. It was like a second home to me. The only thing was that I was not blessed to be in the same school until I retired. Nevertheless, I have no regrets as it was the school that I had served the longest during my entire teaching career.