White school shoes be gone!
A recent announcement by the Education Minister about the future of the white school shoes reminds Alan Teh Leam Seng about his own school-day exploits with the white canvas shoes
WHITE canvas shoes will soon be a thing of the past in Malaysian schools. In a recent announcement, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said that his decision for all students to wear black shoes will come into effect next year.
Despite having left school many decades ago and thus totally unaffected by this impending change, the decision brings back a flood of memories about my love-hate relationship with the ubiquitous white canvas shoes.
Used by generations of students, white shoes have been a bane for both students and parents. It was definitely a Herculean task to keep the footwear spotlessly clean even for a single day, let alone throughout the entire duration of the school week.
No matter how hard I tried, those dark friction marks and mud splatters were sure to make their presence felt very quickly. They stuck out like a sore thumb against the white background and I often found myself getting psychologically ready for a vocal reprimand and a hard rap on the knuckles from the eagle-eyed discipline teacher.
A primary school classmate of mine was so preoccupied with his footwear that he always had a bottle of whitening liquid present in his bag on days when spot checks were scheduled. For the rest of us, the task was as simple as swiping a stick of white chalk from the blackboard and rubbing it furiously over the soiled parts before passing it to an equally anxious friend sitting in the row behind.
Unlike their black counterparts, white shoes had to be washed practically every weekend. During those short two days, there was a clear correlation between the weather and my overall happiness. I used to be petrified when it rained the day before school started. Fortunately, the damp canvas never fails to dry up overnight behind the refrigerator even during the most humid of days!
Despite all the hassle and challenges brought on by white footwear, I believe that they played a role in instilling discipline and a sense of cleanliness among students. Through the shoes, I learnt to take good care of my other belongings and became more responsible in ensuring that my footwear was constantly in good condition. All these values have stood me in good stead throughout my adult life.
STUDENTS OF THE PAST
One thing’s for certain, learning institutions back in the late 19th century and early part of the 20th century were worlds apart from schools we know today. Back then, it was already a challenge for educators to get students into the classroom let alone get them to put on proper shoes.
A large majority of the Malayan population then was uneducated and, from the perspective of both students and their parents, the act of attending school was much like entering an unknown realm filled with boundless intrigue and uncertainties.
An incident in Kedah back then is a classic case in point. Teachers at the Alor Star Government English School (now Sultan Abdul Hamid College) were confronted with a very varied set of students when they threw open the doors to their new building located at Tanjong Bendahara on Jan 1, 1917.
While those from well-to-do families arrived properly attired and in their gleaming chauffeured Vauxhalls, a large number of the less fortunate students came barefooted and wore ordinary dayto-day clothes that had seen better days.
DEmAND FOr ScHOOl SHOES
To maintain a sense of uniformity in the classroom, the teachers engaged local enterprises in Alor Star and embarked on a series of fund raising efforts to purchase proper clothes and shoes for needy students. Back then, these items were expensive as pre-war Malaya had very few industries and most necessities had to be imported.
Most shops selling shoes in Alor Star were located along Jalan Raja, Jalan Langgar and Pekan Melayu. Hari Singh Hazara Singh Bros, a wholesaler who conducted business from 26, Jalan Langgar, took out an advertisement in the town’s inaugural Che Laidin Badminton Competition magazine in 1936 to promote the sale of imported shoes with prices starting from $7.50 per pair. That sum was equal to the salary for an entire month’s work for most people in Alor Star then!
The demand for proper shoes grew in tandem with the increasing number of school-going children in the early 1930s. Among the most popular canvas shoe brands at that time was Fung Keong. Started in the 1920s by the man who lent the shoe its name, this affordable footwear enjoyed massive appeal among the lower