town school vs rural school

This is the first day of the PMR examination. I am invigilating a rural school in Labu; about 15km from my house. Driving to that school is totally different from driving to my school. As far as the eyes can see; it's just trees and more trees to my left, right and front.

As I approach the school, I have to be careful as there are potholes everywhere (huge ones) and also cowdung all over. It's just like driving into Sitiawan Estate except this is tar road and not red soil road. Cows and goats here and there.

The students.....I have been teaching in an all girls school for 13 years now and I am so glad that I am teaching girls only. The boys....there is this particular Chinese boy who caught my attention. He was holding a 1.5L 100Plus bottle; sweating as he looked for his table. He is rather big and plump. He finished the paper in less than 30minutes and was looking around restlessly. Later, when he had to do the second paper (writing), he copied everything from the question paper (including the charts). Once he completed that; he asked for permission to leave the hall.

I noticed that he is not the only student who is like that....don't know what they have been studying the past 9 years in school. Infact almost every other student in his row looks blur.

There was a boy with very dirty nails...black. I think he works in a motor shop. I find most of the boys rather dirty and untidy looking. Probably because of their economic background and upbringing. Though there are many poor students in my school, but most of the girls look clean and neat and presentable. The chief invigilator had to ask some of the boys to leave the hall so that they could tuck in their shirts and look neat before entering.

During the writing papers, very very few students ask for additional papers. This is so different from my school where we teachers are on our toes all the time; passing papers to the students. I happen to notice too the SPM2009 result....one student acheived 7As and a few with 5As and 4As. That was their best results...hmm; my school...no need to compare. If we get something like that, all the teachers will be in hot boiling oil!

I think the lack of academic achievement in a rural school has a lot to do with the students' economic background and upbringing. I am able to see it so clearly today (not that I am unaware of it; just that I have been in an excellent town school for too long).

Another interesting observation, there are many natives (orang asli) here. There is an orang asli settlement nearby. What puzzles me is their names. Some of them has names like Norhayati binti Alias; keturunan bumiputera (exactly the same like a Malay) but agama bukan Islam. Then there are those with names like Jelita AK Chong Ah Kau, keturunan bumiputera. I'm pretty confused....when is anak kepada used and when is binti used? I thought bin and binti is for Muslims only but this is not true. I checked Norhayati binti Alias' IC and saw that it is not stated she is bukan Islam whereas some ICs are stated bukan Islam or Islam. If she dies; she may be mistaken for a Muslim and be given a Muslim burial!!!

Well....This is Malaysia!