-A Tribute to the late Mr. Oh Boon Tat
The Scenario:
The Scenario:
At the workshop of the Methodist Secondary School of Nibong Tebal in the year of 1966, a lesson on Industrial Arts was commencing for a group of Form Two boys.
Mr. Ooi,being the subject teacher, had had his notes and diagrams copied on the blackboard.
After the boys had entered the workshop in a single file, they started to gather at the front benches of the workshop to jot down the notes from the board. It would take them quite some time to finish the task.
As the teacher had nothing else to do, he would tell stories for the boys to listen. But the most vivid one was about his student days in Technical Institute(TI), the only secondary technical school in the state of Penang. The person whom he always mentioned was his headmaster in TI.To start off the conversation, Mr.Ooi would ask the boys,
“Do you know I had a terrible HM in TI?”
“Really?” Lau Beh was a bit puzzled and curious.
“Whenever a pupil chanced to meet him, he would be awarded with either a carrot or a stick. But then, it was more likely to be a stick than a carrot, you know what I mean?”
“No, I don’t,” replied Sukumaran .
“Because the HM expected all his students to pass every subject taught in school. For each subject a student failed in an examination, he was given a cut on the buttock. So you can imagine how many TI boys would pass out from the school without getting the punishment. Very few! ”
“Moreover, every time when a boy was sent to his office by a teacher, the first thing he would do was to give the boy a cut before he began to question him.”
“One good thing about the HM was that he was neither a hypocrite nor a conformist.”
“In his office, he would keep bottles of liquor on the shelf which no other HM at that time would do so.”
“And.... if he expected a heavy downpour before the school session was over for the day, he would order an early dismissal for the school.”
“Whenever there was an inter-school rugby or soccer match involving the school,the HM himself would mobilise the whole school to go down to the field to cheer for the school team. If for one reason or another, he was not satisfied with the umpiring of a match, half way through the game he would turn his back to leave the field. The boys would get the hint as to what they were supposed to do. A fight would ensue in the field and it would be reported in the next day's newspaper.”
For more than forty years I did not know, as well as I did not bother to find out who was the headmaster in TI whom my Industrial Arts teacher always referred to. In fact I had forgotten totally about the matter.
Only a week ago, while I chanced to flip through the 1971 school magazine did I manage to find the “missing link” from an article written by Mr.Tan Boon Hin in memoriam of the first headmaster of Technical Institute,Penang, who passed away on 9 July 1971.
‘The HM was Mr.Oh Boon Tat’.
The late Mr.Oh Boon Tat was directed by the Ministry of Education to pioneer the establishment of a secondary technical school in 1958. He served in the school as the headmaster until he retired in the year 1965.
As the headmaster, he had helped to inculcate and develop a deep-rooted school culture of loyalty to the school, respect for the teachers and prefects, a thirst for academic excellence and a love for sports. It was during his tenure as the headmaster that many of the school records set for the track and field events by the students then are still maintained and remain unbroken until this very day. I doubt they would be broken in the decades to come. As a Chinese adage says, “虎父无犬子”[hu fu wu quan zi]which means ‘a father as brave as a tiger would never produce a son as timid as a running dog.’ Similarly,with Mr.Oh as a strict and dedicated headmaster, the school had produced quite a number of outstanding students. All the efforts of Mr.Oh were not in vain. May his soul rest in peace and may we remember him always.
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2 comments:
Mr Oon was a teacher in Methodist School Nibong Tebal?
What coincident.
I’m from Nibong Tebal and was in TI Penang in year 1973-75
Would very much like to meet up with Mr. Oon again maybe in our future school reunion.
Cheers!
Mr Oon was a teacher in Methodist School Nibong Tebal?
What coincident.
I’m from Nibong Tebal and was in TI Penang in year 1973-75
Would very much like to meet up with Mr. Oon again maybe in our future school reunion.
Cheers!
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