Thank you Cikgu

The last presenter was a form one student who presented a 5 minute speech on what Prep School means to him. His presentation was superb, complete with eye contact, humour, facts and all the ingredients of a great speech. It was not easy to deliver a speech after four other experienced speakers who, among others were a former Director General and a writer. And to perform in front of famous names like Tun Hanif Omar, Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas and other famous personalities who are old boys of MCKK, is another form of pressure.

What really touched me was as soon as the form one student completed his speech, the Principal of MCKK, Anand Baharuddin, went to the student, hugged him and told him that he did very well.

It reminded me of the time when I was a student at MCKK from 1975 to 1979.

At a tender age of 13, at a residential school, away from our parents, we all needed guidance and while we had prefects as big brothers, parental guidance was very much needed. And we were lucky, the teachers filled the vacuum.

And the teachers at MCKK, as far as I could remember were good “surrogate” parents. They not only taught us well, but after school, they joined us for games, listened to our problems and helped us on matters regarding growing up. At MCKK, the students are lucky to have teachers who are not only carefully selected to teach at a premier school, but play very effective role as parents as well.

To my former classmate Anand Baharuddin, who is the principal of MCKK, well done. The students only have good things to say about you. The examinations results were good. The students excelled in sports and also other extra-curricular activities. And most of all, the students looked at you as a father figure.