How Form Six Changed My Life: A retrospective

Since a lot of people read my previous blogpost about teachers, I decided to share another aspect of my life: Form Six. I was a form six student before entering NCKU, and that experience provided me with a modicum of life-changing experiences.

For those that don't know, Malaysia doesn't have a junior high/high school system. We have Secondary schools with 5 years of mandatory education, and we graduate with SPM (Malaysia Education Certificate), or an O-Level equivalent. After secondary school, we have a choice of either doing a diploma, A-Levels, Matriculation and Form Six, the latter two which are government sponsored. As I wasn't on the shortlist for Matriculation (which is not all that uncommon for non-Malays, despite my 9A results), I entered Form Six instead.

Form Six has often been called the "Poor Man's A-Level" and "The place for local universities". Almost all graduates of Form Six who passed their STPM (Malaysia Higher Education Certificate) are offered a place in one of the local universities. Also, the school fees for Form Six are a fraction of the price for A-Levels in a prestigious Private College, but at the same time the difficulty curve for Form Six is obscenely high. In fact, STPM was ranked among one of the top 5 toughest exams in the world. I admit, I was lost at that time and chose Form Six out of spite because I felt like I had no other place to turn to.

My other family of 6 Mulia

One of the main things I learnt in Form Six is integration. No, not THAT calculus integration (though I did learn that), but integration with my peers. In an average Form 6 class the number of students are never more than 30. In my class, 6 Mulia (Literally 6 Noble) we had only 18 students and all of them were Chinese. Over the one and a half years of Form Six, we became a tight knit family.

Honestly speaking the first few weeks of Form Six was absolutely terrible. I felt like an outsider as most of my peers were from a rival secondary school and they already had their pre-established cliques. But through mutual interests and generally assimilating their behavior, I became friends with most of them. And the thing is, we became close as brothers: sharing our thoughts, consoling each other and generally being a dick to each other most of the time.

It's ironic that I have better friendships with these friends whom I only spent 1 and a half years with than friends back at my secondary school. Perhaps it was the distance, perhaps it was because I generally couldn't care about them anymore but I became distant with my secondary school friends. Even today I can count the friends from my secondary school that I still kept in touch with on one hand.

Form Six students working hard on a typical morning

Another thing I learnt from my peers is hard to describe. As I have mentioned earlier Form Six is lauded as the Poor Man's A-Level, as such honestly speaking most Form Six students come from more impoverished backgrounds. They are not in poverty but none of them are rich. This is consistent with the facts as many people who can afford private colleges enter them instead of Form Six. We know that post high school life is formative. It's a fact that most college students go clubbing on weekends but my Form Six peers never go clubbing.

Me and my friends meet every other week, and while most people would assume we get wasted and go partying, they could not be further from the truth. Instead we meet up at a fast food joint (Usually KFC, though for variety sometimes we go to McDonalds or even other joints) and just sit around (no smoking) and play Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Yes. We do geeky stuff like that.

On the other hand, I have friends who come from rich backgrounds and can afford to go to expensive places. One of my buddies from high school is such a person. Instead of fast foods we get Dome and the like. Honestly speaking this gives me a perspective on how fundamentally different life can be for people with different backgrounds.

A Typical Mathematics class

A third thing I learned from Form Six is that the Malaysian education system is flawed beyond belief. Meritocracy as a whole does not exist in our country. My fellow students during my time in 6 Mulia were all bright students who were born with the unfortunate condition of "Not being Malay". The best of them had an average CGPA of 3.8+, and in my opinion deserved more than what he got instead.

Post STPM, Malaysian students are thrown into different local universities based on their results. Malaysia has the 4 "prestigious" universities that all students hope to enter, namely UM, USM, UPM, and UKM. These top 4 universities are notable for being the only ones on the global top universities list (albeit dropping in rank year by year). But the flawed system is notorious for giving students only one choice at the end of the day. No multiple offer letters, no multiple acceptances from different universities, only one university will accept you at the end of the day.

The worst part of this system is sometimes you will receive a subpar course. For example, my friend who studied Biology was "offered" (and I use the term loosely here) Mechatronics. Mechatronics, a subject as far removed from Biology as Photonics from Chinese Literature. Thankfully her appeal was accepted, but this is a demonstration of the Malaysian system of "no audible complaints mean no problems".

At the end of the day, boys will be boys.

Perhaps the most important lesson I learnt from Form Six is that at the end of the day, it's all down to you. During the 1 and a half years in SMK Seri Serdang I learnt a lot of things, made a lot of friends and grew up, but in University I found that none of it mattered. In University, you get to choose what you want to do, and hopefully excel and put those skills to use in the real world. Despite our government carting off the chosen "merited" students overseas (which undeniably has real talent along with the rest), it's ironic that many of the best talents are just in our backyard, denied the chance to shine. One good example would be the inventor of the flash drive, a Malaysian who was denied a government grant because he came from a private high school. He went on to achieve success, and made millions.

To all readers reading this to get some tips whether or not to choose form six, I would say this: Think about it, and whether you are willing to spend your time and energy on something that takes too long. If you can do it, then go ahead. If not, you'll be wasting your time, and I would advise you to choose something more suited to you. It's your choice!

Teachers: Heroes or Villains? Reminiscing past teachers.

So today (May 16th) is teachers day in Malaysia, chosen on this date in commemoration of the Razak Report. Usually primary school students have half their school hours off to get a performance extravaganza (using that in the loosest of senses here lol) and secondary school students will just have to contend themselves with a 5 minute generic speech given by the Education Ministry to all schools in Malaysia.

So today, I find it the best time to examine this question: Are Teachers Heroes or Villains?

Before I start, let me warn you that this article is written from a primarily Malaysian point of view. Some may apply to all teachers worldwide but some may not.

It's funny how students share a love-hate relationship with teachers. Some hate teachers up until the point when they graduate, and then they miss them. Of course, teachers as humans are different and unique. Some teachers are interesting, some boring; some are strict and some are more open to opinions. But are they heroes?

Many people paint teachers as the unsung heroes behind every successful person. Everyone who ever went to school experienced the anxiety waiting for their new teacher to enter the class, waiting for the teacher to introduce her/his name (teachers in Malaysia are mostly females) and hoping that this teacher would be memorable.

In my 12 and a half years of formal education (I took form six after form five), I have met a lot of teachers. But let's start with some reminiscing of my educational life, shall we?

Honestly speaking none of the teachers in my Primary 1 class were particularly memorable. I have some hazy memories, and sadly that's all that is left of my Primary 1 days. I only remember my form teacher as being female, and somewhat kind, up until the point where she found out I was cheating in my Chinese spelling test (I'm calling it spelling because the term is interchangeable in English class as well). Hey, I was young and stupid back then. I honestly didn't know it was cheating. Well all I remember of that time is that I was berated for cheating. At the same time, I have hazy memories of teachers asking me to cut my hair all of the time (the school had a very strict buzzcut policy). According to my mother, teachers singled me out for that because my parents were very vocal in their objection of this policy, but perhaps it was because I was very young at that time I can't remember it.

In Primary 2, I have more distinct memories. I entered the  My form teacher was very strict, but no one was stricter than my Malay Language (BM) teacher. I forgot their names, but I remember one time where I got caned on the hand because of something I did....which I forgot. It hurt so much, I started asking my left-handed friend for tips on how to write with my Left Hand. One of the worst memories I had of the time goes like this.

So I was a prefect at that time. And I can't say I wasn't proud of myself. But one day, due to forgetfulness or a lack of foresight I forgot to buy a notebook for my Chinese class. Without as much as a by-your-leave I was stripped of my prefect rank with it going away to my classmate, and forced to go to the school bookshop to buy one. It was a walk of shame, and I was crying all the way to the bookshop. Worst thing was, the bookshop was closed at the time! So stupid old me waited in front of the bookshop, crying, until the teacher sent someone to go check on me.

Honestly, my standard 2 Form Teacher was one of the worst teachers I've ever had. It might be due to memory bias, but I always remembered here as being strict and no-nonsense. Her daughter was the one who always got first place in class, and of course, there was a rumor that she cheated. Can't really say if it's true or false, but by God do I resent what she did to me.

In Standard 3 (Primary 3) my parents transferred me to a new school. By some weird twist of fate or whatnot I was sent to the last class in the entire year. Like my standard 1 class, I have no distinct memories of the teachers. Perhaps it was because they were very relaxed in their methods, but honestly speaking all I can remember of this time is me meeting one of my best friends up to this day, Lee Ejay.

It's odd to note that despite English being my best suit and my favorite subject I literally have no memories of English classes and teachers for the first 3 years of Primary School. I don't understand why, but it's just a blank there.

In Standard 4 I entered the second-ranked class in my school. Here the memories become clearer. I can even remember the name of my form teacher! In my memories she was a strict teacher who taught math and Chinese. Her policy....errr I forgot. It was something about studies though (you don't say). My English teacher was also one of the most interesting teachers I've had. Unfortunately, her classes were somewhat...ahem.

Standard 5 and 6 are easy because they shared the same teachers. My late form teacher (she passed away in 2007-ish I think) was a strict teacher. At this time I became the worst kind of student, the kind disinterested in studies. I let homework pile up and generally didn't care about my studies. I became too cocky. Teacher didn't resent me though, she tried to steer me back. I remember her quote very distinctly even now:

"You are 7 A material (referring to the 7 subjects in UPSR, the generalized exam for Primary School), if only you would put in more effort to your studies. Malaysia's future lies with your generation, and it's your future duty to make Malaysia the same with the West."

This moment for some reason stuck with me even more than all of her classes. I can even describe the scene perfectly. It was Physical Education class. Instead of playing I was standing there (probably because I forgot my sports tee). She called me over next to the school hall (SJK(C) Serdang Baru 2 students will now what I'm talking about). And she started telling me that quote.

I think it's because nobody has ever told me about my potential outside of my family. And I'm very sorry to say that I unfortunately let her down. I only got 6 A's in the end.

Another teacher of note in my Standard 5 and 6 days was my English teacher. Haha, if you're reading this, Hi Madam Chong! :D Her classes were never boring and she tried to make it as interesting as possible. She encouraged us to be creative (Not too creative though, because she discouraged me from using Bionicle names in my homework). I remember her thinking up English related games after we finished our UPSR. And I remembered the laughter in class so distinctly.

A third teacher...well a third and a fourth teacher I recall are my science teachers for this period. One taught us for about 3/4 of a year before transferring away to another school. The other replaced her. And god. God almighty was she awful.

Our first science teacher was very interesting. You could see that she legitimately loved science and teaching science. Two classes were of note to me. The first one was a class where she came in bringing doodahs and whatsits. She started demonstrating heat expansion and cold compression. Right in the classroom. And I had front row seats, so I took in the wonder. The second class I remember was astronomy. She told us that the universe, ahem, our solar system is 3-Dimensional. And drawings on books and blackboards can't do it justice.

Unfortunately, an obnoxious teacher came and replaced her. Obnoxious...yes. Most definitely. Unlike our first teacher, she took a textbook approach to science. Her answers were rigid, and when my peers tried to argue, as real scientists would, she would snap at us and tell us not to argue with the answers and go into dead ends. I can honestly say that she took away the fun of science and made it a drab and dry subject.

Another teacher that I can recall with not-so-fond memories was my BM teacher (Malay Language). When Standard 4 started, he was a fun, interesting man who kept telling jokes and keeping the class entertained. But unfortunately, I think it was because I skipped past a few overdue homeworks, he started resenting me. He started ignoring me in his jokes and when I tried to joke with him it was a 180 degree change from happy face to indifferent face. For a 10 year old, it's quite scarring as all I wanted was to have fun.

One last teacher that I can recall is my Moral studies teacher. He was one of the vice-principals of my school, and he took a new approach to teaching. Unlike other teachers, he tried to introduce us to the university method too early. He gave us assignments, which we were supposed to present in class. Honestly speaking, I didn't do even one of his assignments (lazy syndrome strikes again?!), but in hindsight that move was one of the few that I regret.

My Primary School memories show that the acts of teachers shaped my life throughout those years. Teachers played a part in my life as much as my parents. The ones who shamed students made me somewhat resentful of myself, and the ones who encouraged students to pursue their ideals made me reach out higher and further than ever before. I can honestly say that without these teachers and more, I couldn't be sitting here and typing this from NCKU, Taiwan.

Of course, Secondary School teachers played a part too, but that is for another story for another day!

Well, in conclusion, generally teachers are all heroes. But on the other hand, teachers are humans too. And as humans, they aren't perfect. And some accidentally become villains who unwittingly destroy a students life. But they can also gift students with a rare gift: Hope.