Teaching in the Alma Mater
by Earnest Lau  (Archivist of The Methodist Church in Singapore)

 
In this issue, Mr. Earnest Lau shares with us his experiences as a teacher in ACS.
Taking many of his former students down memory lane, he recalls his fellow teaching colleagues
and his involvement in the school’s extracurricular activities. He also recollects the changing education
scenario after Singapore became self-governing and the challenges the teaching profession faced.

Subject Specialists taught their special subjects in the upper classes – Standard VIII through the Sixth Form (Pre-University) classes. I was therefore assigned to teach my subject – History, and later, the General Paper in the Sixth Form. I also taught other subjects like English Language and Literature and non-specialist subjects like Scripture in Standard VIII and the lower forms.

Preparing lesson notes, teaching and marking written work became the new routine. What took the most time was marking English and History essays, largely done after school, although the occasional effort shone and provided an interesting diversion to an otherwise tedious routine. Up to the School Certificate level, much of the teaching was fairly straightforward, textbooks being the main teaching resource. It was only in the Sixth Form classes that the academic cut-and-thrust began to take place especially in the General Paper where, apart from a collection of published essays by well-known intellectuals formed the basis of discussion, debate and essay writing. We also dealt with topics derived from serious publications such as the BBC’s The Listener magazine. It was here that intellectual discourse took shape, progressing from the village of information to the world of ideas.

In those days, ACS teachers expected a high degree of discipline from their pupils. I can recall a number of colleagues who had started teaching from before the Japanese Occupation, and brooked no nonsense from unruly boys. Several of these experienced teachers had taught me: Mr Chew Kia Song, Mr P.V. Thomas, Mr S.K. Pradhan, Mr Chee Keng Lim and Lim Hee Yang were some of them. Then there was Mr Yap Ah Chuan, Supervisor of the lower secondary classes. Though not a University graduate, his English pronunciation and diction were excellent, and he used his magisterial voice with good effect around the school. Thus equipped, he exerted an awesome influence, supplemented by his habit of “speaking with his hands”. Anecdotal accounts by old boys who remembered this experience showed that they bore him no grudges, recognising that they were no angels themselves! He was also the regular announcer at School functions like Sports Day held at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

In contrast to Mr Yap, the Principal followed a more benevolent policy. He did not believe in punishing unruly boys sent up to him for indiscipline, but preferred to give them pep talks. I recall how boys sent to the Principal’s office came away smiling. Whether they improved their behaviour is questionable. Ideally, a school should not need to resort to corporal punishment, but in practice a line has to be drawn somewhere.

Among the staff, I developed a special friendship with two other graduate teachers, Mr Ong Kang Hai and Mr Ong Kim Kiat, both of whom had studied by themselves and gained London University Honours degrees in English as external students. To do so while fulfilling their teaching responsibilities was an object lesson in self-discipline and personal sacrifice, like Mr Thio Chan Bee who attained an Honours degree before the war.

My association with the two Ongs developed into a team effort to produce a series of English textbooks for a British educational publisher. For a couple of years, we met regularly to write, discuss and edit the materials for publication. These books were well received, but changes in the English Language syllabus forced their replacement by other textbooks. However, a parallel effort to produce a collection of exercises for the Cambridge English Language Paper II had a longer print run. As an intellectual and professional exercise, it was stimulating and represented a small contribution to English language teaching in Singapore (and Malaysia).

School Extracurricular Activities
ACS has traditionally included a wide selection of extracurricular activities that has made the School interesting and stimulating. In the 50s and until the Pre-University classes were transferred to ACJC in 1977, there were a surprising number and variety of activities. There were a score of clubs, societies and service groups, together with another dozen sporting activities available to the students who took part in informal matches, as well as in inter-House championships at the annual Sports Day and Swimming Carnival. The best also represented ACS in inter-school matches and competitions as well, and for many years, acquitted themselves very well, even though we did not have a regulation-sized playing field, while our swimming pool became available only in 1968. A number of boys were good enough to compete in international events, while M. Jegathasan made local history by being selected to compete in the 1960 Rome Olympics though, unfortunately, he did not represent Singapore.

 In addition, there was Scouting, the Boys’ Brigade, and St. John’s Ambulance, augmented by the Cadet Corps, Police Cadets and the Military Band after 1965. To give students an opportunity to develop and express themselves, there were a number of student functions such as the Drama Festival where each class could produce a play of its choice, Variety Nights, Talent Times, and School Fun Fairs. Perhaps much of this was possible because of the participation by the Pre-U girls who provided more opportunities for a variety of student activity.

All in all, the teachers and students were kept busily occupied with an active programme and this was partly in keeping with the students’ enthusiasm and very good athletes and swimmers the School produced. Like other teachers, I was appointed to serve in several of these activities. Although they did take time and effort, I have to say that the experience was quite enjoyable.

As treasurer and officer of the School’s 12th Company of the Boys’ Brigade which grew to an enrolment of about 500, one of the world’s largest BB Companies. It provided excellent training in the disciplines that moulded character and a desire to be of service to one’s fellow men.

For a number of years, I was put in charge of tennis, a game for which we had no courts, and since this meant that all inter-school matches were played ‘away’, I was obliged to ferry the boys to and from the matches. After a few years with tennis, I was asked to revive rugby football which had started before the war, but was held in abeyance since then. Although I had no coaching background, we were fortunate to have the services of an Old Boy who sportingly taught our boys the skills required. Needless to say, we were usually on the losing side, but the boys learnt to “play the game” – to take hard knocks like true sportsmen.

Then, there was the Janus Group, a society formed primarily for the Pre-University and Senior students with a desire to understand some of the serious issues of society by talks on historical subjects, the theatre, and visits to the Film Censor and the Press. It was hoped that these experiences would stimulate the students’ interest and appreciation of the wider social issues posed by them.

Two other activities stand out in my recollections: the School Magazine and the Fun Fairs. The ACS Magazine, first published in the 1890s as the ACS Journal, was a valuable source of information about the life and culture of the School. As revived in 1930 by Mr Lee Choon Eng, it ceased publication for the duration of the Japanese Occupation but resumed immediately after. At the time when I was appointed to supervise its production, I was assisted by a number of very able and committed students who excelled in bringing in the advertisements and producing the magazine. It was largely a student effort, but with careful management of time and resources, it came out on time and within budget, and has remained an important source of information about how the School functioned and what the students thought.

Fun Fairs were yet another activity for which the School was noted. The moniker, “Fun-O-Rama”, beginning in 1962 under the new Principal, Mr Lee Hah Ing, became almost a trade mark which continued, and still continues at the ACJC Fun-O-Ramas, successfully raised what were then quite substantial sums for school building and improvement projects, the most challenging being that of the ACJC. It was an exercise in student entrepreneurship. What was remarkable was not only the energy and enthusiasm shown, but also the creative ideas that were displayed. More than that, it was an opportunity to develop a special camaraderie that knit the ACS as one.

The New Era
When Singapore became self-governing in 1959, the state of Government finances was parlous, and drastic measures were taken, chief of which was a cut in the allowances of all Government and Government-aided staff. Together with this, a six-day working week was instituted in order to maximise teaching time and Saturday became a regular school day. Although salaries were eventually restored, and the Saturday classes suspended, enough warning had been given about the changes to come.

More significantly, the curriculum was revised, and in addition to English Language, much greater emphasis was laid on Science and Mathematics, a compulsory Second Language (now known as the “Mother tongue”), and Technical subjects in the lower forms. For ACS, Mandarin Chinese was a serious hurdle, as many of the boys did not come from a Chinese-speaking background, and for many years thereafter, earned them poor grades even after strenuous efforts and extra tuition. The frustration often resulted in a sad loss of human resource: boys going overseas to further their education and careers, and being permanently lost to Singapore. The other effect was that the ‘arts’ subjects – history, geography and literature – became less popular, partly because they were more difficult to score, with what intellectual effect it is hard to estimate. It was a price we had to pay as a nation struggling to survive in an unforgiving world, while the British decision to withdraw from the Naval Base in the late 1960s merely confirmed the new realities.

Independence meant that Singapore became responsible for its own defence, and with the building up of the armed forces, the Schools too were required to be responsive to this development. Like all schools, ACS organised new uniformed organisations like the National Cadet Corps and the National Police Cadet Corps, while the Military Band was formed partly to provide a basic music education, but also to support the new quasi-martial emphases. At the same time, sporting activities that would build up the strength and stamina were encouraged to make the boys better prepared for National Service.

All these changes required a much greater teacher commitment. Teaching had become much more demanding. It was a testing time for ACS, and indeed, all schools.