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!
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