By Wong Sai Wan

MALAYSIA - IT IS almost the end of the year and most schools are in the midst of their final exams while those in Form Five or Upper Six are getting ready for their SPM or STPM examinations.

It is also the time of the year when many say farewell to their school and friends because they will be leaving for college or another school to continue their Form Six.

However, if one lives in a township like Subang Jaya (like we do) where everything is here, many of the goodbyes would be just superficial because they would probably meet up everyday at the nearest cafe or at worse a mamak stall.

My two kids, the sons in Form Five while the girl is in Year Six, are in such a situation where they will be leaving some friends and will definitely make new ones next year.

I remember fondly when it was my turn in 1978 when we said our goodbyes immediately after our MCE (that's what SPM was called those days). The first thing we did was to have a house party. It was a drinking affair – we could officially drink without being chaperoned.

One of the weird things we did was to invite one of our teachers along to the party. His name was Surjit Bakan Singh. He had taught most of us either, Science or English in our five years at King George V (KGV) School in Seremban.

Yes, he was easily our favourite teacher. I can remember in Form One when most of us were still trying to burst out of puberty that Mr Surjit (there are very few people in the world whom I will refer to as Mister and he will always be Mr Surjit to me) decided to teach us about the "birds and bees".

He asked us to close our classroom doors and took every question we threw at him. There was nothing he would not answer.

The 40-odd boys in the class obtained a proper sex education as he also warned us about early sexual experiments. Although KGV was a co-ed school, they separated the girls from boys in the first three years and only had mixed classes from Form Four.

I do not know if this is still the practice today but we came through it okay because of teachers like Mr Surjit. Also because KGV then had quite a liberal administration which encouraged the boys and girls to mix in between classes.

It must have worked because quite a few of my schoolmates married each other in later years.

Mr Surjit was particularly popular because he was also the scout master and the teacher-adviser of the Cinema Club. On hindsight, he was in charge of the two most popular extra-curriculum activities of our school.

He had taken many of us camping and even on excursions to various places. We had gone to as far as Singapore where we stayed in the classrooms of Raffles' Institution. It was also my first time to the island republic without my parents.

His teaching style was different because he was keen on giving us an education and not just passing exams. I cannot remember Mr Surjit ever scolding any of us for not doing well in any particular subject. Instead he cajoled us into doing better. He would grumble like an old friend.

Mr Surjit has become that to most of us – a friend.

He was a product of the school and his love for KGV was obvious. He was trained in Kirby College in England and that must have explained his joy for education.

I have not heard any complains against any Kirby-trained teacher. Not yet at least.

One other teacher I liked and looked up to was Mr V. Kumaraguru or appropriately called Mr Guru. He had this deep baritone voice that made him especially popular with the girls. That was also another reason we guys hung around him.

Mr Guru and Mr Surjit treated us like adults and in return we gave them the respect that they deserved as teachers. This is something I have not heard about from either of my children. To them teachers are the necessary evils of going to school.

Of course, I also had terrible teachers. There was one male teacher (who obviously will not be named) who had a habit of challenging the alpha male in a class to a boxing match.

He would tell the boy that he was once a military boxing champion and challenged him to go down to the field. I have not heard of any boys taking him up on the challenge but his bullying tactics did not endear him to the students.

He did this boxing challenge during all his time in the school.

Teaching during those days was an honourable profession and not a job of last choice. If a teacher was stopped by a policeman then, all the teacher had to do was to mention what he did for a living and the cop will immediately salute and call that person "cikgu" (teacher) with the utmost respect.

Of course, the traffic offence would also be forgotten. It would be unthinkable to believe that a teacher then could commit any offence. If they ever did, it would make headlines in the newspapers in those days.

However, nowadays, crooked teachers are no longer a surprise and it has to be a pretty heinous crime to warrant a headline.

The authorities need to bring back respect and honour to the profession instead of loading them with ever changing policy decisions.

Take the paperwork away from teachers and get them to bring back joy into the classrooms.

Some paper pushers will question such "irrelevant objectives like honour, respect and joy" but I say why not?

Tomorrow, I will be attending a dinner organised by the Old Georgian Association at the Royal Bintang Hotel in Seremban which is next door to our alma mater. I hope to see many of my old friends especially Mr Surjit and Mr Guru.

My classmates and I will also be celebrating our 30th anniversary of leaving school. To many of us, it was the best times of our life.