The Penang Free School(PFS), founded in the year 1816 and it is by foremost the oldest school in the South East Asian region with its astonishing legacy to its production of renowned leaders and sportsmen. During its glorious days, anyone from this school is respected for their proficiency in English and for being an all-rounder either in studies or sports. The best lawyers, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs are surprisingly known to be graduated from this school. With all its fame in its golden era, come and have a look at this Grandlady right now. Almost everything has gone, torn and tarnished!
There are several aspects that I would like to touch on as to why the school has been miserably degraded. Firstly, PFS is known only to be sieved with excellent UPSR scholars but lately the school has been ‘upgraded’ to a partially boarding school and semi-scholars whom are good in sports are all infiltrated into the school. And that ignited the chain of problems to the school. With these semi-scholars, they intend to only be active in sports and neglect in their education. Since such establishment, the school’s uniqueness has been downgraded just like AirAsia, “Now everyone can fly” to PFS, “Now everyone can study”. This is ridiculous because being a premier school, its objective is to nurture excellent students and not just ordinary students. Since then, the statistic of achievers either in PMR, SPM or STPM is on downhill. To add on to this, the discipline of the students is getting worse as students from every walk of life are infiltrated to this school.
The quality of the teachers on the other hand is on the downscale as well. The younger generation of teachers are fonder of their salary instead of being passionate to their job. Only the senior teachers are dedicated to their students. So this nevertheless results in students losing interest learning in school. They either play truant or rely on tuitions to excel. This is extremely embarrassing as the school has lost its purpose. Why need a school? Just stay at home and relax instead.
The other thing is the assimilation of Jawi writings and such into the core tradition of the school is another form of breach to the school's originality. If it's an English school, let it be. Why need changes?
Lastly, PFS’s newer generation principals are lacking in quality. They are never dedicated to the school and never strive or sacrifice for the betterment of this school. The mindset needs to change. In my opinion, get a principal who is an Old Free because only an Old Free will appreciate the school’s pride and legacy. Every Old Free shall take this as a wakeup call to save our school from further deterioration!
*This Article is Monitored by FreeMahesa. All are welcome for comments.
i thought PFS is one of the best schools? yet it is still lacking of quality? then you can't imagine how bad my school is ==
ReplyDeleteI believe Malaysian education as a whole lacks quality. No surprises.
ReplyDeleteWith umno haha you can never expect quality. They will drag PFS down and litter the once glorious English school with mat rempits and kampung gangsters and shit loads of ketuanan syok sendiri crap. Ketuanan Melayu mah.
Deletewell m agree with this article...esp the jawi writing..its good for xting...!!...n lately i tink they painted the school with orange and white...and made it juz luk lik an ordinary boarding school..sad to say...She already lost her pride...!!
ReplyDeleteI think you got the wrong idea of education. Every child has a right to access education. Therefore I believe that there is a need for schools to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Don't you think that having 'premier' school will increase the divide between able and less able students? You are right to point out that the school is not producing good results like it used to, but that can be due to various factors like socio-economic background of the learners, poor transition into the school and lack of academic support within the school. I think you are rather jumping to conclusions by saying that Penang Free School should remain highly 'selective' rather than 'comprehensive' brother. Think again. Do you really want a school which produces students with a string of As or a school which includes students from all walks of life and integrate them into the education system and provide a better future for them. Think again.
ReplyDeleteHave you been teaching yourself? I had, and I'd say that right to education doesn't equal right to be indiscipline. It's not so much about the academic results nor students' family background but it's the lack of quality control on the students nowadays compared to PFS in the past that the writer is concerned about, which is the same kind of syndrome that is also affecting many Malaysian national schools as a result of deteriorating Malaysian education by this unbelievably incompetent and corrupt Malaysian government.
DeleteAnd that Jawi writing thingy is probably the work of another self-indulgent Malay Muslim supremacist little Napolean who is brainless and shows absolutely no respect to the school's heritage.
To the brother above :
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything u said but you are being too general. Let's be more specific to the problems pertaining to PFS with no comparison to any other schools in this world, and you will eventually agree to the statement above. I hope you are an Old Free as well because only an Old Free will understand this article better.
It's the deteriorating standards plus the creepy Islamization of this once glorious English medium school that is really disturbing and annoying.
DeleteIt's not brother, but sister. Anyway, what is an 'Old Free'?
ReplyDeleteSorry, that was silly of me! I have gathered that the alumni are known as 'Old Frees'.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I am not an alumni.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/07/24/Jawi-signboard-at-Penang-Free-School-removed/
ReplyDeleteA little bit of good news. Now the silly Malay Muslim syok sendiri Jawi script are removed.