Up-close With Pak Radja

05.01.2016

Same day as in 6 years ago

Pak Radja as a School Inspector

            On 5th January 2010, Pak Radja had a rare opportunity  to visit one of the primary schools located in the interior of Keningau, Sabah. The school is SKM Kuala Kahaba. SKM stands for 'Sekolah Kurang Murid', it simply means a school with low enrolments. which it classifies as schools with less than 150 students. It is located at Kampung Kuala Kahaba, along Keningau Ansip road.

             According to the official record, in  2009 the school had 98 students, consisted of 42 boys and 56 girls. And 12 teachers! In Malaysia, we have more than a thousand schools categorized as SKM. 

             Although most of our schools here are of National Language medium; Bahasa Malaysia, We also have primary schools with Chinese and Tamil medium, reflecting the cultural diversity in Malaysia.  This extends children's knowledge of their own culture as well as to understand others. 

               Meet four out of eight pupils of Year 3 SKM Kuala Kahaba.

Mary and her younger sister at the back row.

               There were 8 registered pupils  for this class but then only 4 of them turn up during this first day at school. This is not an unusual scenario in SKM schools. Most of the family lived quite far from the school premises and this hinder them from getting to the school early.

                One of the pupils, Mary came with her younger sister. She had to tag along as nobody at home was free to babysit her. Both of her parents were working and the other older siblings were at secondary schools, won't be too lenient in having a younger brother or sister tagging along.

                 Who we are, which race do we come from, what is our social status, which ethnic do we represent or speak, don't matter because we are united as one. we are 1 Malaysia. And the future of better Malaysia is in our younger generation's hand. 

Pak Radja signing off.

Last but not least, keep your Angklungshaking!