dirty malaysians

Yesterday was canteen day...the state of the school at the end of it was appalling. Students gathered around the English Zone to enjoy their food and listen to loud noise they call music. Plastics, styrofoam containers and cups etc littered all over. The tables were piled with rubbish from the food the students ate. When the bell rang at the end of the day for the students to gather at the assembly ground...I was shocked to see the students just got up and left.

Oh my....who is to clean up after them? The teachers????

I got my students together to clean up their stall and the nearby area. Wherever I walked and I saw rubbish, I pointed to students nearby and made them pick up the rubbish whether they littered it or not.

The same thing happen during Sports Day last week at the stadium. Students ate and throw the rubbish under, behind and at the side of the seats. As I was in charge of cleanliness with my KRS students and a few other teachers, I decided to be proactive. Instead of waiting for the sports to be over and start cleaning, I moved among the students every now and then with a black garbage bag and call out, 'Sampah...sampah'.  Many students felt shy seeing me walking around and collecting rubbish from them. I didn't give them face as I pointed out the rubbish to them and said to their face that they were dirty and irresponsible.

It's sad to see how this generation do not see that it is communal responsibility to keep clean and not the job of cleaners. Then we adults are also not showing good examples as teachers shy away from jobs that are not delegated to them. There is no reason to lift a finger if it is not your job. If you are not the leader of the group, no need to lift a finger too because the leader will do all the job. That was what I was doing on Sports Day.....I was the leader of my team so I was responsible of the cleanliness. Infact the KRS who were appointed to help didn't help me when I was moving about. They just disappeared and appeared again at the end of the game.

How do you educate the society on cleanliness? We have much to learn from our little neighbour down south.

When I visited a school in Singapore last year, it was really impressive to see how the students worked to keep clean. As the delegates from various countries had their lunch, students from the host school were walking around with garbage bags and collecting the garbage from us as they walked along. That should be the way.

I get very heartsick when I talk on this topic. I am all out to keep Malaysia clean and I teach my kids and students this value. But many a times I feel that I am talking to a wall....after a lecture on cleanliness, you turn around and see litter on the floor. Somehow, the message just doesn't get home.

Something is wrong with the education system if we fail to instill values which students hold and practise in their daily lives.