The Star, Sunday November 22, 2015
A
real challenge: With her perseverance and determination, Yook Chin was
able to raise the standards of the Hill Street school and was later
asked to helm SMK Convent Kajang.
SHE was the pride of our once-little town where everyone knew each other.
Nicknamed Ah Lek Goo (which in Hakka means “clever girl”), she was
one of the 26 children of Chai Loy,a wealthy local merchant.
She was a gifted soprano and would render the legendary Chinese
actress and singer Chow Suen’s songs to the delight of the
neighbourhood.
Many expected Ah Lek Goo to finish school with a Cambridge
Certificate (equivalent to SPM), get a job and be married. That was the
sum total of the ambition of a girl during the 1950s. But Ah Lek Goo had
other plans.
Returning to Kajang after completing her Teacher’s Training, she
taught for several years in Yu Hua School and Kajang High School. She
found teaching dull and longed for something more challenging. But
nothing was available for an ambitious young woman in that era.
Then, it happened – a new school was about to open on Hill Street
(now known as Jalan Bukit). The Selangor Education Department ( was
looking for candidates for the position of headmaster. It was to be a
co-educational school and the vacancy was for a male.
With no prior experience in school administration and at an age too
young to be a headmistress, the slender, cheongsam-clad Ah Lek Goo put
in her application. And to her surprise, she was given the job. Ah Lek
Goo or Miss Chai Yook Chin, as she became known, was the youngest,
female school head in Kajang town.
Running the Hill Street school was a challenge. Unlike the premier
schools at that time – Kajang High School and Kajang Convent (now SMK
Convent Kajang), the Hill Street School did not attract the best brains
in town because it was still new.
Funding was also a problem. It was a small school and the parent-teacher association did not have much money or influence.
It was difficult also to get good, experienced teachers to come to Hill Street.
Yook Chin made it a point to religiously visit the Selangor Education
Department every Saturday to ask for advice and learn the job. She was
stymied by the pay sheet because Mathematics was not her favourite
subject.
Humbly, she begged the finance clerk in charge of her school to teach
her. She learnt the pay sheet and made a good friend who later became
her husband.
Being young and inexperienced, Yook Chin learnt early the art of
pestering. She found that if she were to go every Saturday and ask the
officer in charge of say, furniture for the staffroom, again and again
persistently, she would normally get what she requested in the end.
Thus, her Saturdays were sacrificed “haunting” the officers in charge of various facilities for her fledging school.
She was a natural leader and soon won the respect and co-operation of
the teachers. They worked hard under her leadership and she made sure
that she took care of their welfare.
She knew instinctively not to micro-manage. She was easy-going and
respected her teachers. They repaid her trust with good teaching.
With adequate facilities and a good staff, the Hill Street school
began to attract good students. Slowly but surely, it began to produce
students with 5As for the Standard Five Examinations (which is
equivalent to our UPSR). From a small school, Hill Street was upgraded
to a B school.
In 1980, I enrolled in Standard One in Hill Street. I was proud to
have such a good headmistress because she was my mother. Everywhere we
went, people recognised my mother and they spoke highly of her. The
townsfolk were proud that a local girl had made good and become a
headmistress.
Yook Chin would have been content to be Hill Street’s headmistress until her retirement.
However, in 1986, the premier school, Kajang Convent School, did not
have a headmistress. The Selangor Education Department urged her to take
on the post. She was reluctant because the school was an A school and
naturally, the position came with bigger and more responsibilities. But
with more coaxing, she took on the challenge with a heavy heart.
She worked in Convent until her retirement. She made sure that the
teachers got new facilities and staffed the teaching team with many more
able teachers. However, I believe in her heart of hearts, she still
missed her baby, Hill Street (which is now called SRJK Jalan Bukit 1).
As Hill Street and Convent grew, so did the town. The influx of many
outsiders especially in the time after her retirement made the
relationship among the residents of Kajang distant. As the years went
by, no one remembered Mrs. Mah Peng Wai and her contributions to Convent
Kajang School. Her beloved Hill Street remembers her name no more. Many
of the townsfolk who heard her sing had passed on or moved away.
When she died at the age of 65 in the year 2000, she was only mourned by her family and church friends.
Yet she left a legacy - not only in Hill Street or Convent but also
in me, her only child. Although I had witnessed how the job of a
headmistress had taken a toll on my mother’s health and the sacrifices
she had to make for her schools, I still ventured into the education
line.
No, I am not a headmistress – I do not have her capabilities but I share her passion in providing quality education.
As an English teacher, I am doing my bit for education in Malaysia.
FLORENCE MAH SAU FONG
Kajang, Selangor
KUALA LUMPUR:
A two- lane closure will be implemented along the Cheras-Kajang Highway
for 24 days, to facilitate concrete pump parking for track work
concreting, said MMC-Gamuda.