New Straits Times, January 27, 2003
When schools were centres of excellence

By Khoo Kay Kim
Column: It's history

FOR more than half a century, Penang Free School, founded in 1816, had no rival in what was then loosely called British Malaya. Malacca High School, founded a decade later, also became a prestigious school, but it never attained the same stature as PFS.

The establishment of British administration in the Malay states, beginning from 1874, saw the emergence of English schools in the course of the last two decades of the 19th century. Taiping, the major town in the Malay states then, not surprisingly took the lead with the Central School at Kamunting. But by the turn of the 20th century, it had been overtaken by King Edward VII School.

By the close of the 1930s, there were English schools established by the government in almost every Malay state, including Kelantan (Sultan Ismail College) but excluding Terengganu which, like Perlis, was slow to take off where English education was concerned.

From the Sultan Abdul Hamid College in the north to the Government English School Johor Baru (now Sultan Abu Bakar College) in the south, year after year, outstanding scholars and sportsmen were born. Many of the scholars studied overseas, mainly in Britain. Others proceeded to Singapore to study medicine at the King Edward VII Medical College (founded 1905) or Raffles College (1928).

Although these government schools were soon challenged by schools founded by the Methodist Episcopal Mission or the La Salle Brothers, their reputation remained intact. Perak had the most number of superior schools: from north to south, King Edward, St George's, Clifford, Malay College, Anderson, St Michael's, ACS (Parit Buntar, Ipoh, Kampar, Sitiawan and Teluk Anson) and GES (Tapah).

Rivalry among these schools was a feature of the country's education system. They competed in many areas: studies, sports, debates, elocution contests and although inter-school drama competition was not a regular affair, drama was in most schools a yearly activity as it was an event which formed a part of the annual school concert.

What is particularly noteworthy is that such school activities were not held on a token basis. There was passion, even fanaticism - the idea was to achieve excellence. The sacrifice of quality never crossed the minds of principals, teachers or pupils. In sports, for instance, the best in every school endeavoured to represent the state.

In 1934, Clifford School, Kuala Kangsar, had so many outstanding hockey players that in one inter-state match, Perak fielded nine players from the school. The other two were their hockey master (Nicky Caleb) and a teacher from King Edward VII, Taiping (Alladad Khan who represented Perak in no less than seven sports).

The pupils of Methodist Boys School, Kuala Lumpur, pioneered cycle racing in this country and for decades it produced national champions. Ng Joo Ngan was, in addition, an Asian champion. The rivalry among MBS, Victoria Institution and St John's captivated the attention of the public. Mokhtar Dahari, originally a sprinter, was spotted by the football master and turned into one of the finest footballers this country has produced. Ghani Minhat was a pupil of Confucian School.

After the war, new schools were added to the list: STAR, SDAR and TKC (a girls' school). It is not certain how many in the country today are familiar with these abbreviations. But these were once household names.

It is difficult for those who have no first-hand experience of these schools to imagine how important it was for each to be better than the other. The small St Anthony's School in Teluk Anson won the 4x110-yard relay at the Malayan Athletics meet held in Singapore in 1950, beating ACS Singapore. And in 1957, GES Tapah emerged champion in the Malayan Inter- School Hockey competition held to celebrate independence.

Every pupil deemed it a privilege to be admitted to these schools. Parents shared the pride. Examination results were of course important but pupils were always reminded that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It was not surprising that Queen scholars were also often outstanding sportsmen.

Wu Lien, who studied at Cambridge and became a world authority on the plague, was champion athlete of PFS. Raja Zahar Raja Badiozaman, the only prince to win a Queen's scholarship and studied engineering, was champion athlete of MCKK. H.S. Ong, another Queen's Scholar who studied law at Cambridge, was the first Malayan to enter the semi-finals of the All- England Championship in 1936 and two years later he was runner-up in the US Badminton Championship.

There were many others studying overseas, though not Queen's Scholars, who also shone in sports including MIC's first president John Thivy, who excelled at table tennis and actually introduced doubles play in this country. Dr K.T. Khong rowed for his college at Cambridge. Maarof Zakaria, who studied law, won county titles in tennis. The list here is not exhaustive.

By the 1970s, all these schools had become national schools. But they are no longer considered premier schools. Attempts to egalitarianise Malaysian society progressively led to these schools becoming common rather than centres of all-round excellence.

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