Sunday October 4, 2009
Seeing disparity
BY KEI MELIA
Familiarity breeds comfort, and sometimes we just have to step out of our comfort zones to gain different perspectives. I grew up in Kuala Lumpur, and assumed that everyone live the way people do in the city. Attending a college in the middle of a palm oil estate in Banting, Selangor and meeting people from different states in Malaysia made me see the disparities in Malaysians’ lives.
I have met top students from rural schools who struggle to converse in English. I never imagined that topics of discussion that I consider normal were taboo amongst those students. Despite their weakness in English, these students still excel academically and could further their studies. But what happens to their classmates who weren’t so smart?
As part of our academic requirements, we started a community service programme at a primary school in Banting. I was initially shocked by the school’s condition; there is only one block of building and one class for each year of primary school.
Most of the students are orang asli children. Before we started teaching there, the teachers had told us to give our instructions in Bahasa Malaysia as the children do not understand English.
At first, I was more interested in chalking up the hours required for my coursework. But then, as time went by, I realise that I had so much more I needed to do there.
I got to know the students, and it got me thinking about their situation. This is a primary school, and if the students are not trained to converse in English now, when would they start? Academic differences aside, I realise that children are the same no matter where they come from. They were the average mischievous rascals who grin whenever you caught them at some mischief, and they were filled with laughter.
You’d have to be there to see the smiles on their faces to understand how I felt at that moment. I wish I could take back every materialistic demand I made, and to be able to smile the way the children did. They lead carefree lives, as though they have everything they needed in their life. I cannot remember the last time I felt that way.
But these children will grow up eventually. What happens then? Meeting my fellow coursemates and these children from rural areas have made me realise that there is a need to create equal opportunities for all.
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