Friday, November 19, 2010

The Sad State of SMJK

This is the front page story of today's Sin Chew newspaper
It doesn't feel good while reading the story

In my college or workplace
People often thought I took the usual route of studying in SMK after Chinese primary
When they found out that my Chinese is good
And that I can read and write Chinese
They will thought that I'm from Private Chinese secondary schools
I need to say no all the time and often I need to remind people that there's a thing called SMJK
And I'm from SMJK

SMJK
Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan
Is neglected by both the government
And the Chinese community
As the report says
The government focuses on developing SMK
Because they insist that SMJK are Chinese schools
The Chinese community focuses their funding on Private Chinese schools
Because they insist that SMJK are government schools and should be supported by government

If you step into an SMJK school
You will notice that it's like a Chinese school
Students speak and write Chinese
But due to the negligence
Certain SMJK began accepting headmasters that don't understand Chinese
Hence loses it's rich Chinese heritage and feel

SMJK is like another choice for Chinese
Who want to study Chinese
But cannot afford Private Chinese schools

I'm proud that my Chinese is as good as my English
No disrespect to anyone
But not many people can say that
And I believe this is because I studied both languages
The best place to do that?
SMJK

So where will these type of school go from here?
Nobody knows but time will tell

*several portions of this post are translated from the newspaper report, for the original report, the link is below:

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