A Tale of Two Schools: Two Defiant Subordinates

Scene One: At Convent School

Miss Patima was a lecturer at a teacher's training college on the outskirts of Bukit Mertajam before she was promoted to be the Principal of my school early in the year 2001. She did not have any administrative experience at all before assuming the post.

Like the other Principals before her, I had arranged 6 periods per week of a lesser important subject for her to teach, that is, Form 3 Moral Education ,knowing fully well that she would be more preoccupied with school administrative work.

On the first day she reported to the school, she already wanted me to change her timetable. She hoped to teach 2 periods of Malay Language from each of the 3 classes in Form 4. Those 6 periods had to be blocked so that in case she could not enter a class on any particular day, the other teacher who was sharing the class with her had to enter on her behalf.

I told her that it was not possible to get the timetable changed instantly as it would involve changing the timetable for the rest of the teaching staff. Anybody with the slightest knowledge of preparing a school timetable would be aware of this. It took me about 72 solid hours to prepare a reasonable timetable and I usually did it outside my school hours. I told her that I could only do it during the next round of reshuffling of the timetable. This was how I defied my boss on the first day itself.

Later, I did change the timetable to meet her request. However, the other teachers sharing the classes with her privately complained to me that it was unfair to them. Most of the time the Principal would be out of the school to attend meetings. They had to enter the classes on her behalf. When it came to examinations, the Principal needn't have to mark any scripts as she was just ‘a minority shareholder’ in the classes she taught.


Once, while I was teaching in a class, the Principal sent for me. She directed me to attend the open ceremony of MSSPP [Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Pulau Pinang] Sports Meet at Bertam, a distance of about 40 km from the school. According to her, she had totally forgotten about the event. She said she would be late if she was to travel there by car, and it would be faster for me to go there by motorbike. I told her that I only rode the motorbike within the town area and for any long distance travel I still had to use a car. If she could not make it on time, neither could I do so unless I was the Seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher in the making. This made her sore again.

This repeated defiance could be the reason for my sudden and surprise transfer to Berapit School as Afternoon Supervisor by the year end of 2001. It was a second shock to me as well as to others following the 911 incident three months ago.

Later, during a farewell gathering given to me by the school, she openly denied in her speech that she had a hand in my transfer from the school. Only her God and my Gods would know the truth.


Scene Two: At Berapit School


Whist Miss Patima had me as a defiant subordinate in the Convent School; I too had a defiant subordinate in my new school at Berapit.

He was Mr. Sehari. He was teaching the subject of Living Skills at Form 2 level. He made life difficult for me in monitoring him as he would punch card at his whims and fancies; sometimes he punched, sometimes not. To keep track on his existence in school, I had to go down daily to the workshop to check on him. If he was absent, I would instruct my assistant to prepare a relief timetable to relieve him.

Sometimes, when a relief timetable was already prepared for him, he would appear from somewhere. This again would upset the original relief timetable as it had to be redone afresh.

On many occasions he would leave the school for outside activities organized by either the District Educational Office or the State Educational Department without informing the school. I had to make phone calls to ascertain his whereabouts and what he was doing.

Another headache he posed was that he was reluctant to produce medical chits for his medical leave. It would take him weeks to hand them to the office after he had been repeatedly chased after by me and the school clerk.

The climax occurred when my school was hosting a State Inter-School Basketball Competition. All the matches were scheduled in the afternoon. Some brilliant teachers of mine took the advantage of skipping lessons by sending their pupils down to the basketball courts to watch the matches. They would be enjoying themselves elsewhere with a remote control.

After receiving numerous complaints from discipline masters, I had to come out with a circular for all the teachers, to warn them not to allow students to watch the basketball matches during lesson time.

Mr. Sehari still defied the order. He kept on sending his pupils to the basketball courts to watch the matches. I was cornered with no alternative but to issue him a show-cause letter. This was done with the consent of my Principal. The hero did not bother to reply my letter. Instead, he went on to circulate copies of his poison letter to certain quarters, a copy of which was given to my Principal, accusing me to be an anti-Melayu element, targeting at him in particular.

With this hard core defiant subordinate around the school whom I had no way to turn him around, I decided to throw the towel as the Afternoon Supervisor and got my transfer to another school in the following year as an ordinary teacher whereas this defiant subordinate was undeterred at all and still remained as solid as a statue in the same school until his retirement recently.

In either case, whether I was a defiant subordinate in one school or a duty-bound supervisor in another school, in the end I was fated to leave both schools.