--

Now that I've mention the responsibilities of parents to ensure the proper bringing up of children, it brings to mind the case of school going children of today. In the many cases when both the father and the mother are working couples, most of their children would experience almost total absence of personal attention when it comes to school work supervision. More often than not, these parents would resort to having their children sent to tuition classes in the hope that these would substitute for their own personal lack of attentions , which to all intents and purposes lead to disastrous effects on these children studies.

Thus you find these parents putting a blame on the poor performance at exams directly on their children, forgetting the fact that the root of the problem is inherent in themselves for failing to take personal interest to follow up on the daily school work. Sending them to tuition classes does not solve the parents own negligence or lack of time to devote attention on these children. We really feel sorry when we see any of our grandchildren being scolded by their parents for not doing well in exams. Our own findings show that it is the parents fault all along for not taking interest in the daily school work of these kids.

That’s why we are very glad indeed that Faiq gets himself admitted to a residential College and more so when the College is patterned on the English boarding school, which are very particular in ensuring proper discipline and study and play periods to the boys and girls.

Old Faiq

Both Ainul and I have been very fortunate indeed to have gone through our respective Colleges - she in The Malay Girls College and of course mine The Malay College . Our daily routine is strictly regimented starting with the morning bells to get up and bathe and a warning one to leave the dormitories and head for the classrooms. After lunch, we go back to the dormitories for a 30 minutes nap or rest time before heading back to the classrooms for "prep" as it is called. "Prep" is the short terminology used for "preparation of school work". Hence we would have a fixed two hour prep in the afternoon. Play time begins after prep and tea and during this next few hours before dinner, we will be involved in games of our choice, gardening, personal hobbies or simply spend the time at the library or back to class if you like to. Dinner is at a fixed time, the missing of which will be a loss in one’s food for the night because there is always someone who will welcome your food as extra helpings !

New Faiq

Thus the terminology of " double ration" in most Colleges. After dinner, we are compelled to take a short relaxed walk around the College compounds, which in the case of MCKK we have the inner road, which we all use for the purpose. Heading back to the classrooms after that entails another three hours of prep time and then it is off to bed, with lights off at all the dormitories by 10.30pm. The only exceptions when the lights out time is extended is on Saturday nights when we have the movies or some other entertainment activities such a concert and lights off at 11.15pm. As a Prefect and more so when you are a Duty Prefect for the day, you will have to ensure all the warning bells for waking up time, inclusive of the last bell for the night are rung at the exact time, after which to make sure everyone is in bed for the night.

written by Tunku Farid