过而不改·Unrectified: Open Letter to the Headmaster of Confucian Private Secondary School

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This letter was given to Mr. Phoon on 18 July, 2011, and my parents are still waiting for his reply. (Please read "我们会再见")

15 July 2011

The Headmaster

Mr. Phoon Wing Keong

Confucian Private Secondary School

Lorong Hang Jebat,

50150, Kuala Lumpur.

Dear Mr. Phoon,

Re: Open Letter to the Headmaster of Confucian Private Secondary School

First of all, allow us to express our congratulations on your recent appointment as Headmaster of Confucian Private Secondary School. It is indeed a relief to see that the unfortunate state of affairs of the past few months has come to end. As the parents of a former student of your school, we would like to politely bring to your attention certain events of the past that you may not be aware of. We also humbly request your reply on several issues and questions that have been left unanswered, albeit our numerous efforts on obtaining a response from your school.

1. Lack of teachers for SPM subjects

Our daughter, Ee Sun Zhe, formerly of class S2Sc in the year 2010, sat for her SPM examination in that same year. However, there were no permanent teachers for certain subjects, including Sejarah, Biology and Physics. Being concerned parents of our child’s education, we made enquiries about the matter. The Head of the Academics Department, Mdm. Wong Yet Foong, told us that she was trying her very best to hire teachers for the relevant subjects (apparently, from what we’ve heard from other parents, this has been happening every year). In the month of May, however, we saw that despite Mdm. Wong’s very best efforts, the problem remained unsolved. Hence, we decided that it was best for our daughter to spend her Saturdays attending SPM tuition classes instead of attending extra-curricular activities at school. Towards the end of the year, extra classes were held during the school holidays. However, no permanent teachers had been hired even when the SPM examinations had commenced. We also did not receive a reply to our letter that we had sent to her regarding this matter (please refer to Attachment 1).

Let us remind you that we, and also the parents of other SPM examinees, have dutifully paid for the fees of your school’s SPM classes. As such, we expect your school to provide the appropriate teachers for the SPM lessons, which your school did not. Let us also remind you that had your Academic Department been able to carry out its responsibilities as it had promised, tuition classes would not have been necessary for my daughter, and the expenses paid would have gone to a better cause. Furthermore, extra classes during the holidays would also have been unnecessary had the original SPM lessons been conducted during their original school hours.

Our daughter also heard from this year’s SPM examinees that there is also a lack of teachers for certain SPM subjects this year. If this is true, we urge you to look into this matter to prevent the unhappy events of the previous years from repeating. Also, we would like to question a certain statement made by your school’s Deputy Headmistress, Mdm. Teh Kim Hong in a newspaper article (please refer to Attachments 2&3). Her statement that we would like to make an inquiry about is as follows:

“。。。而校方依然有安排老师教导学生大马教育文凭里的科目，并以严格的教学方式教导，绝不含糊。”

According to our understanding, this statement means that “the school has arranged for teachers to coach the students in the SPM subjects, and has applied strict teaching methods, unambiguously.” This is contrary to what our daughter has experienced in your school, and we have been utterly confused as to which version of the story is actually the truth. Of course, there is a possibility that we have misunderstood the words of Mdm. Teh. Therefore, it would be much appreciated if you would kindly ask Mdm. Teh to clarify what she means by (if our translations are correct) “the school has arranged for teachers to coach the students in the SPM subjects”, “strict teaching methods”, and “unambiguously”.

2. The Senior One Jungle Camp （高一野外营）

When our daughter was in Senior One, we were told that she had to attend the camp mentioned above. Initially, we did not allow her to attend this camp, because we felt that this was a dangerous and also unnecessary activity. However, our daughter was informed that students who did not attend this camp would be unable to graduate from your school. It was only after hearing this that we allowed our daughter to attend the camp against our better judgement.

Shortly after our daughter applied for her School Leaving Certificate at the end of last year, we met with Deputy Headmaster Mr. Teoh Hua Chai. During this meeting, we wanted to confirm with him whether or not it was indeed compulsory for every student to attend this camp, or else they would not be able to graduate. He said that it was the school’s policy that every student must attend this camp at least once during their senior years, and students that did not do so would be unable to graduate.

However, according to a statement in Facebook posted by your school’s Head of Co-curricular Activities Department Mdm. Chang Siang Min on 29 March 2011 (please refer to Attachment 4), the school has no such policy. In her statement, she requested the Senior One form teachers and students to stop their false accusations against the school that the school would withhold the graduation certificates of students who did not attend the camp.

Again, we are confused as to which version is true. Hence, we would also appreciate it if you would kindly ask Mr. Teoh and Mdm. Chang to clarify their previous statements to avoid further confusion.

3. The requirements for a child to study at Confucian Private Secondary School

In the same conversation mentioned above with Mr. Teoh, we also asked if it was possible for the parents of a student to oppose this policy, to which he replied that parents do not have the right to do so. He further stated that the school does not have the obligation to listen to the opinions of every parent. Our next question was, if we had stated that our child was unable to attend this camp due to health or other such reasons, could the school have exempted her from attending the camp? Mr. Teoh then expressed that our daughter was unsuitable to study at Confucian Private Secondary School.

We would like to stress the point that this condition was not mentioned when we enrolled our daughter at Confucian in 2006 (please refer to Attachment 5). Also, given the fact that our daughter had always been doing well academically at your school, we were taken aback when Mr. Teoh informed us in front of our daughter that she was unfit to study at Confucian Private Secondary School. If attendance of the jungle camp is indeed a requirement for a child to study at your school, we suggest that you make sure all parents are well-informed of this condition before their child’s enrollment. We would also appreciate it very much if you could ask Mr. Teoh to clarify what type of student is the most suitable to be enrolled at your school.

Lastly, we would like to state that our family has had many unpleasant experiences during our daughter’s five years at Confucian Private Secondary School. We believe that to achieve your “quality education” （“优质教育”） as mentioned at your school’s website, we suggest you listen to the public and parents’ opinions and suggestions. Please feel free to call us (019-XXXXXXX or 019-XXXXXXX).

As Peter Drucker once said, doing the right thing is more important than doing things right. We sincerely hope that we will be able to see Confucian Private Secondary School regain its former glory under your governance and guidance.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

……………………… ………………………

Daniel Ee Chua Choo Him

(Click picture to enlarge)

Attachment 1