Toot…

Chung Ling High School (CLHS) was the school I attended for 5 years in my life. For those who do not know about CLHS, it is considered the best “Chinese” secondary school in Penang, with over 3000 students at a time. Please note that the CLHS I’m talking about is THE CLHS, not the Private or Butterworth sister schools. In this entry, I will give an introduction about Chung Ling High School, which I think might be useful for future students or parents of future students.

Entry
After 6 years of primary school life, it was great that I was finally going to a new environment, a new start, a new adventure. Entry level to Chung Ling High School that time was 12 or below, based on the result of Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) or Primary School Achievement Examination: 1 mark for each A’s, 2 for B’s, 3 for C’s, so on and so forth. There were a total of 7 subjects which I took (since my primary school was a “Chinese” school): Chinese Comprehension, Chinese Writing, Malay Comprehension, Malay Writing, English, Mathematics and Science.

If you are wondering why Chinese and Malay language are divided into two categories (comprehension and writing) while English is not, I can think of a few reasons, some may be contradicting and you’ll have to decide on your own:

1. English is not taken as seriously as Chinese and Malay (and Tamil) in Malaysia.
2. Malaysian students can’t write in English, hence there is no need for specialised English Writing examination.
3. Malaysian students are so competent in English that there is no reason to have a specialised English Writing examination.

There is an exponential increase in students who get straight A’s in recent years. I sincerely believe that students nowadays are getting smarter, with better results, hence more straight A’s students, all thanks to the great effort of the Education Ministry. It has NOTHING to do with the increase leniency in marking the examination whatsoever…. Right… This somewhat miraculous exponential increase of straight A’s students has lead to the tightening of entry requirement to CLHS.

Alternative Entry
What happens if you can’t get in to CLHS? Well, you can go to Heng Ee High School with a slightly lower entry requirement (which I don’t see there is anything wrong with), or you can try the alternative method. All you need to do is to know some of the trustee of CLHS or know somebody who is close with them. Since an important part of the funding for CLHS comes from the trustee, they have to the power to grant Right of Entry to a couple of student each year. So much for the quality control. Of course, there are late bloomers from that group of student who excel during their years in CLHS. Those are the ones worth our respect.

Note:
For parents, if you have some doubt about your child’s opportunity in entering Chung Ling High School and want an insurance or back up plan, be sure to make an early booking with the CLHS trustees. They are always in high demand.

10 Commandments of CLHS
If you think that the 10 Commandments exists only in religions, you are far from correct. Below is that 10 Commandments of Chung Ling High School in Chinese and its English translation:

一、钟灵中学的学生是纪律化的
他遇事镇静，有判断能力，绝对服从真理，处处顾到秩序。
二、钟灵中学的学生是尊重的
他言行不苟，尊重父母、师长和团体的领袖。

三、钟灵中学的学生是忠诚的
他处世以诚，不说一句谎话，或做一件欺骗的事情，受了人家的嘱托，肯负责去做。他看学校如自己的家庭，事事物物，无不竭诚爱护。

四、钟灵中学的学生是勤俭的
他勤于学业，刻苦耐劳，不浪费时间，并能充份利用他的机会。他节省费用，留以周济他人，或达到他个人有价值的目的。

五、钟灵中学的学生是谦恭的
他以礼待人，态度谦逊，出言和蔼，对于妇孺老弱，更知爱护，且有相当敬意。

六、钟灵中学的学生是勇敢的
他有主持正义，疾恶如仇，不避艰险的勇气。他不受谄媚，不怕威吓，任何失败，不能灰他的心志。

七、钟灵中学的学生是清洁的
他保持他的身体、思想、言语、习惯的清洁。他参与清洁运动，使环境美化。

八、钟灵中学的学生是乐群的
他没有怪僻的脾气，和不近人情的行为。对于利群的事情，从来不规避，总能拥护多数人的意思，通力合作，以求其实现。

九、钟灵中学的学生是乐观的
他时常含有笑容，能敏捷的，愉快的，尽他分内的职务，事务愈困难，心中愈快乐。

十、钟灵中学的学生是进取的
他不自满，不多言，向着他高尚的目的去努力，挫折愈多，努力愈甚。

1. Chung Ling High School Students are Well-Disciplined.
2. Chung Ling High School Students Respect their Elders.
3. Chung Ling High School Students are Sincere.
4. Chung Ling High School Students are Hardworking.
5. Chung Ling High School Students are Courteous.
6. Chung Ling High School Students are Courageous.
7. Chung Ling High School Students are Clean.
8. Chung Ling High School Students are Friendly.
9. Chung Ling High School Students are Optimistic.
10. Chung Ling High School Students are Self-Improving.

Alright, I admit, they are not exactly Commandment materials. Below is what the CLHS 10 Commandments would sound like if they are Commandment materials:

1. Thou shall be Well-Disciplined.
2. Thou shall be respectful to thy Elders.
3. Thou shall be Sincere.
4. Thou shall be Hardworking.
5. Thou shall be Courteous.
6. Thou shall be Courageous.
7. Thou shall be Clean.
8. Thou shall be Friendly.
9. Thou shall be Optimistic.
10. Thou shall be Self-Improving.

The CLHS 10 Commandments are more of a CLHS Ideal Student Code of Conduct. And since nobody is actually perfect and ideal in every single way, nobody actually conforms to the CLHS 10 Commandments exactly as stated. Another difference between the religious 10 Commandments and that of CLHS is that nobody with a sane mind actually remembers every single word of the CLHS 10 Commandments. Of course, there are exceptions, such as when the students are actually tested on the CLHS 10 Commandments in their Chinese Language exam during the first year. That was the last time I remembered the CLHS 10 Commandments.

Lower High School
During the lower high school years (year 1 to 3), the students are not divided in to specialised faculty or streams. The lower high school students attend classes in the afternoon. There are always more than 500 freshmen each year (over 600 students for my year due to the year of the Dragon). The students assigned to their classes according to alphabetical order. There are 30 to 40 students cramming in a small classroom for approximately 6 hours every day, excluding recess. It is against the school rule for students to leave the classroom during the change of subjects.

If you are worried that students might be stressed out from spending long hours in a small classroom, don’t be. We Malaysian Chinese are well trained to adapt ourselves to this situation, as we are under-privilege and do not have the government to built nice big schools for us.

Upper High School
Due to the encouragement from the government and also the 60-40 Science to Non-science policy, there are two faculties in CLHS. Quoting Wikipedia:

Chung Ling is one of only a handful of schools that conform to the government’s policy of 60-40. The 60-40 Policy encourages students to take up Science Streams as compared to Art Streams to the ratio of 60-40. In fact, Chung Ling has far surpassed this number and has over 90% of students studying in the Science Stream.

This is what really happening:
There are two faculties in CLHS - the Science Stream (aka good class) and the Art Stream (aka bad class). The requirement of getting into Science Stream is to score A for Math and Science for the Penilaian Menegah Rendah (PMR) or Lower High School Assessment. Those who achieve the stated requirements (more than 90% do), will be assigned to the Science Stream, and those unfortunate ones who don’t achieve the requirements are sentenced to 2 years of Art Stream.

Of course those who achieve the requirements, but still are interested in “Art” subjects such as Business Studies, Economics (all taught in Malay, for Science-knows-why) can still apply to go to the Art Stream, but let me assure you, most if not all of them leave after a couple of weeks due to…… unforeseen circumstances.

CLHS has a weird class-assigning system for the Upper High School years. Rather than the usual alphabet system (top students go to A Class, followed by B class, then c, so on and so forth), CLHS uses a special Alphabetical-Numerical System. There are 3 main categories, A, B and C. There are about 5 or 6 classes from each category, with the naming system of A1 to A5, B1 to B5 and C1 to C5. The top 1/3 of the student will be assigned to the A category, and students will be assigned to the specific class alternately according to their ranking. Example, the 1st will go to A1, followed by A2 until A5, and it cycles through A1 to A5 until all A students are assigned to a class. Same case goes for the B class and C class students.

Under this Alphabetical-Numerical System, less intense competition is expected, compared to the traditional Alphabetical System. Students are expected to grow together, with stronger students helping and encouraging the weaker ones along the way. You can see that the school uses a some what socialist approach, rather than capitalism, where strong competition is encouraged. Why expose innocent students to such competition which they might face in the real world? They should allowed to enjoy their high school life more. Besides, CLHS students are great at regurgitating what they have been spoon-fed by the teachers anyway.

What’s So Great?
The great thing about CLHS is that there are enough classrooms for everybody, hence each class has its own classroom. The Lower High School and Upper High School classes do not share classrooms. However, there is no locker system in CLHS. Since each class has its own classroom, you’d think that it is fine for students to leave their textbooks in the class, rather than bringing more than 5 text books to school every weekday. Sadly, that is not the case. Apparently, the school thinks that text books (which everybody owns the same copy) might be stolen, even if the rooms are locked every single day, even during recess. Yes, students are not allowed in the classroom during recess, for Science-knows-why. The reason given by the school is that things might get stolen during the owner’s absence at recess time.

The above is the introduction to Chung Ling High School. I will talk about CLHS in more detail in near future. Stay tuned.