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| Iconic statue in the JB Convent and its famous front steps that are a favourite spot for photos! |
As my sisters and I outgrew our school uniforms and canvas
shoes each year, my mum will buy us new sets of uniforms and shoes while our
old uniforms were recycled among us as the second set of uniforms in our
wardrobe. In those days, the uniform of
the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Johor Baru comprised a white
short-sleeved, front-buttoned blouse matched with a navy blue tunic designed
with three box pleats on its front and rear, and was worn with a matching blue
belt. With a family of three daughters,
my eldest sister’s tunic will be handed down to our middle sister while I will
inherit hers.
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| Peggy [Right] with my sisters, Ruby [Left] and Pearly [Centre] ready for school |
Like most school-going kids back then, our shoes were bought
from Bata. I can recall wearing slip-on
canvas shoes throughout my Primary School because I did not know how to tie
shoelaces. At that time, Velcro was
unheard of and it was much later in upper Secondary School that I progressed to
wearing the laced-up Bata Badminton Master which was then considered cool
shoes!
I remember there were book lists for parents to buy our text
books prior to the school year and there was usually a trip to the school
bookshop to get the required books.
Sometimes when the school bookshop ran short of supply we had to go
again or visit the book shops along Jalan Ibrahim like Johor Central Store or
the Abdul Wahab Store that also stocked text books. Then my dad would help us wrap the books in
brown paper and write our names on the covers in his curly cursive handwriting.
Besides inheriting old school uniforms from my sisters, I also
remember inheriting their used text books. I didn’t mind it because they were in the classes
above me and it was economical for me to use their old books. But I must admit that I was always thrilled if
there was a change in the school syllabus and I finally got one or two new
books to enjoy the pleasure of smelling the pungent ink as I turned the clean,
crisp pages!
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| 1964 class photo of Standard Two Yellow taken at the famous front steps of the JB Convent |
Other than from a change in the syllabus, the only new books
I can expect each year are the exercise books.
In Primary School, students should have at least one exercise book for
each subject and I remember we had lined exercise books that had the school
name and crest printed on its standard brown covers. I cannot recall if the back cover was blank
or had any prints but these days, most exercise books come with back covers
printed with the Rukunegara or
National Principles, our State anthem and helpful 2 to 12 times-tables!
With a year of going to kindergarten in St Joseph School, I
was prepared to go into Standard One of the JB Convent’s Primary School. I cannot forget the pride in finally wearing
the school uniform and joining my older sisters to go to school as well as the
excitement in meeting several familiar faces of kindergarten classmates in
Standard One Green. Back then, there
were no organised Bas Sekolah
services yet so my parents arranged from a Mr Tan who had a provision shop in
Larkin Gardens and also provided school transport, to ferry us in his car.
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| Façade of the JB Convent with the iconic statue now preserved within a glass case |
Throughout my school years, the weekend in Johor was Friday
and Saturday but mission schools like the JB Convent and St Joseph School
maintained their weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
Since 1994 the weekend in Johor was officially
changed and all schools enjoyed Saturday and Sunday weekends but on Nov 22, the
Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, declared that Johor’s weekend
will revert to Fridays and Saturdays.
So
from 1 Jan 2014, the JB Convent will mark their first day of school and a
milestone in its history with its weekend now changed for the very first time,
to Friday and Saturday.
Every year the start of the new school term will be chaotic
as parents usually take their first-year kids to school and inadvertently cause
massive traffic jams near school zones. If
both or either of the parents worked in the private sector where their weekend
is maintained on Saturday and Sunday, their family time is limited to only Saturday,
their common day off. With the busyness
of modern families today, I just hope that this weekend change will impact the
children positively and help them make fond memories of a new chapter in their
school life.
A version of this article was published in The New Straits Times, Streets Johor on 31 December 2013
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