school life with me , turning up in class after Chinese New Year in a baju tutup outfit made of Shantung silk .
' The teaching in the Primary Class was , as you would expect , very elementary . There wasa Reader for the year from which one learnt the letters of the alphabet and short simple sentences in English like , '' The cow jumps over the moon ." There were also visual aids in the form of illustrated broadsheets mounted on a roller which the teacher could flip over , and I can remember one was an illustration of a slate quarry and another of a coal mine showing miners carrying Davy lamps deep under the earth ' s surface . There was also the ubiquitous black-board on which the lady teacher used to write with a stick of squeaky white chalk .
' By the end of the year , the pupils were taught sufficient arithmetic to be able to add and subtract in double digits . The examinations for the year were held in December and those who passed were promoted to Standard I . Those who failed were sent to Mrs . De Souza ' s class which served as a Purgatory to give them a final opportunity to qualify for Standard I and the fear of Mrs . De Souza ' s cane was sufficient to spur the pupils in my class to put forth their best effort . ' 1919- Standard I . ' My Standard I classroom was sited at the extreme end of the South Wing of the old SJIBuilding . It was an uneventful year except that owing to the breakdown in communication between the school and the office of the Director of Education , the decision to declare a Public Holiday on the 6th February 1919 , to celebrate the centenary of the founding of Singapore , was not communicated to the school in time , with the result that we all turned up in school on 6th February , but found all our classrooms locked . However , a holiday is always welcome and we enjoyed it just the same . ' 1920- Standard IT ' My Standard IT class was in the first room in the
South Wing near which wasa spiral staircase leading to the 1st floor . The class black-board was no longer a black one . It had become a green one but it continued to be called the " black-board "! It was also the year when we were given the first of a series of readers called " The Royal Crown Reader " . Itwas a very useful series foracquiring general knowledge . This publication , consisting of five readers , served as the text book from Standard IT to Standard VI . Each book contained about fifteen lessons of two to three pages each on subjects and topics such as " A Visit to the Italian Lakes ", " The Siege of Vienna ", '' The Last French Lesson ", and " A Polish Officer ' s Flight from the Tzarists " . There were also a few poems in each book by well known poets .
' We had a certain Mr . Low as our class teacher and he used to tellus with great pride that his uncle was Mr . Low Kim Pong who built the famous Siong Lim Chee Chinese Temple then in . KimKeat Road .
' The teaching of a new subject was begun this year , namely Geography . There was a book specially printed for the lower classes called , " The Geography of Singapore ". From this book , we learnt that Singapore was an island of 226 square miles separated from the Malay Peninsula by the Selat Tebrau . The only hill on the island exceeding
SOO feet in height was the Bukit Timah Hill and the five intermediate stations on the FMS Railway were Newton Road Station , Cluny Road Station , Holland Road Station , Bukit Timah Station and Bukit Panjang Station . ' 1921- Standard Ill . ' The year was remembered for a change of teachers in mid-term . During the first part of the year , our class teacher , Mr . Rappa , was transferred to take charge of another class and his place was taken by a new arrival from Manila - Mr . ArriolaWe subsequently learnt that when he took charge of the class , it was also the first day of his teaching career in Singapore .
' Our Standard III class was in a stuffy room on the ground floor in the centre of the main SJIBuilding , very near the school hall . The class had the unique distinction of housing the grandfather clock and the school bell . The clock was in a front corner of the classroom while the bell was hanging from the rafter in a rear corner . The biggest boy in the class had the privilege of sitting under the bell and ringing it every half hour . The ringing of the bell served as a call to all the pupils in the entire school to rise to their feet and say their " Hail Mary ". The bell was a fairly big one with a diameter of at least 14 " at its base . The sound of the bell could be heard from all the classes including the furthest one on the 2nd floor of the Anderson Building . I understand that the grandfather clock has been preserved but the bell has disappeared . ' 1922-Standard N . ' The year had some exciting and interesting moments . It was the first year when we had the privilege of going up to the 1st floor in the North Wing of the old building where our class was sited at the extreme end . Our teacher was a Master Naigam who never had to resort to the cane . However , he was able to enforce discipline by inflicting a quick and sharp pain on one ' s head by snapping his index finger from the back of his third finger - a simple and effective punishment .
' 1922 was a year remembered for a concert given in honour of Brother Visitor , the Rev . Brother [ arnes , who had been honoured with an OBE . For reasons which we never learnt , the tea party in honour of Rev . Brother lames was held in our classroom and one boy from each class was invited to this prestigious party where we were entertained to a violin recital by a Filipino violinist .
' The big event of the year was the visit of the then Prince of Wales ( later the Duke of Windsor ). The school field together with the adjoining field of the St . Andrews School was turned into a chil-
24 Memories ofSf1