Ah Beng is the only son of a couple who operate a food stall in town.
The family speaks Mandarin, practises Chinese ancestral worship and cultural and traditional customs.
When Ah Beng reached schooling age, the uncompromising choice was a Chinese primary school.
The parents believed that education was the vehicle for social mobility.
They placed high hopes on their only son to become a professional and break free from the vicious cycle of the working class.
They had full trust and confidence that the primary school would deliver.
They were responsive to the school’s fundraising drives.
They donated their collections from their stall to Chinese education causes co-sponsored by the school.
They even had donation certificates displayed at their stall.
They believed that the school would prepare their child for schooling in a national secondary school.
However, as Ah Beng progressed in his primary years, the cracks began to show.
While he was doing all right in Chinese language and other subjects taught in Chinese, the same could not be said of his Bahasa Malaysia and English.
The parents were clueless as to why the child was weak in BM and English. They knew that their family Chinese background might not have helped.
They were conversant in “bahasa pasar” and barely knew the English alphabet. They relied on the school to help their child. They even sent him for BM tuition classes.
They noticed, however, that there were some among Ah Beng’s friends who fared well in BM and English, but they were from English or BM family backgrounds.
Still, they placed their trust and confidence in the school to turn things around for their child.
Reality struck when Ah Beng came home with his Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah results. He passed his subjects, except BM and English.
He was enrolled in a remove class in a national secondary school.
His secondary school was nightmarish.
Though he moved on after remove class to higher forms, he was not able to follow most of the lessons as they were conducted in BM.
He lost interest and confidence in his studies and preferred to help out at his parents’ stall when he returned from school and during school holidays.
The parents thought he was lazy and warned him that if he didn’t make it past Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, he would have to quit school.
Ah Beng failed his PT3 (Form 3 Assessments) but made it to Forms 4 and 5.
As expected, his SPM results were a complete washout.
Ah Beng is now with his parents, tending the stall. It is also his turn now to hope that one day he will get married and his son or daughter will break the vicious cycle through education.
Education stakeholders should take heed that there are many Ah Bengs in schools.
We need to find out why schools are not helping them, even as their parents have put their faith in the school system.
LIONG KAM CHONG,
Seremban, Negri Sembilan