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Form 5 D Anderson School, Ipoh

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Subject :Form 5 D Anderson School, Ipoh
Published By : None 
Location : Ipoh, Perak
Estimated Year : 1955
Media Type : Photograph
Source : Anonymous
Remark :

The first picture shows the front of a group photograph - the Form 5 D class, back in 1955. The second picture is the back of the photograph. SK and Linda Susanna Lee (our Blog Readers) shared the following stories with us.

SK

Can recognise one Maths teacher, Uncle Ung Khek Cheow ( sitting 5th from left ). Didnt know he was already in Anderson School Ipoh in 1955. He was my discipline master during my time. Had us shivered when he hovered into our Form with a cane. Very good discipline & Maths master.

Linda Susanna Lee

Ha,ha – I also recognized Ung Khek Cheow. He was Maths teacher to both my uncles Chin Peng Choon & Chin Peng Sung, probably just after WW2 (both uncles now deceased) and my Maths tuition teacher. After the war, only my 2 uncles went back to school. My mother and another little girl that my grandparents ‘bought’ stayed home. Grandpa told my mother that finances was tight and the 2 boys would eventually grow up to be heads of their respective families so they deserved to get as much education as possible. ‘You girls will grow up and get married so it is not so important. If I send my own daughter to school but not the other one, people will think I am biased. Therefore in all fairness, both of you will have to stay home!’ he reasoned.

Grandpa had a good friend with an extensive private library (I think I remember my mum said it was Tony Tan) and he would borrow books from there. Everyday, he made my mum read aloud to him. The result – my mum only had 1 yr of formal education but she trained as a nurse in Penang and through sheer hard work, often got much better results than other fellow trainees who had Std 6 education or better.

So by the time I got to secondary school (Main Convent), my mum decided it was time I got trained by my uncles’ extraordinary Maths teacher. I was taken to see him and readily accepted ( guess it was probably cos both uncles were his star pupils at one time). It was a big culture shock for someone who’d been in an all- girls school until then. For the first time in my life, I was called by my surname ‘Lee’. I also learned the hard way why it was a good idea to be early for class. Early birds got to choose the best seats (long benches in his garage) and last choice would be the front row or worse, share a bench with boisterous boys.

Khek Cheow was very good but also very demanding of his students. If he asked a question, he expected the answer immediately. If one were to hesitate even for a few seconds, the result would be some very harsh words and an even harder wack from his wooden ruler. He had a really short fuse and very accurate aim. For the back rows, his ruler might not reach but the punishment was no less terrifying – he could throw chalk or duster with remarkable accuracy!

Thanks to his training, I scored distinction for Maths in LCE cos I could come out with answers at lightning speed even in my dreams to avoid corporal punishment.

My mum insisted I do Science stream in Form 4 & she was horrified when I volunteered to move to Arts in Form 5 when the school wanted to reduce the size of the only Science class. I still took Add Maths for MCE, relying just on Khek Cheow’s once a week tuition classes as lessons were not available in school. Got C3 , I think and continued to do Maths in Form 6 later.

Read more about the history of Anderson School here.

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