ABOUT 17 years ago, her teacher gave her a pair of shoes.
That memory has remained with the little schoolgirl, who has now grown up and is a teacher herself. It inspired her to pay it forward by buying a new school bag for a student from a low-income family, Harian Metro reported.
A video of Bahasa Melayu teacher Suriyana Asri presenting the school bag to the student was shared on TikTok and received the praise of many users.
Suriyana said she decided to give the student a new school bag after noticing that he was using an old, torn one.
“More than a month ago, I saw the student not carrying his school bag but was holding it in front of him as if it were a book, because his bag was torn.
“As a mother, I was touched to see him pick a book from the torn portion of his bag,” said the 35-year-old Suriyana.
She said she did not know much about the student’s background, but the teenager said he came from a low-income home.
“We instructed him to bring his bag to the teacher’s room and asked him to unload his books, saying that we needed to conduct an inspection before surprising him with a new bag,” she added.
Suriyana said the student was a polite and respectable boy who had great regard for his teachers.
“His reaction moved other teachers and me to tears.
“I was overwhelmed because the price of the bag wasn’t that much, but he valued it so much,” said Suriyana, who has been a teacher for 10 years.
She added that she and over 25 other teachers raised some money each month to supply students in need with clothes, school shoes and even pocket money.
> Thailand’s cannabis-infused beverages are popular among Malaysian weekend tourists, Sinar Harian reported.
Since Thailand’s decision to decriminalise cannabis and allow the use of it in food and beverages, cannabis-flavoured beverages are sold openly at convenience stores for 17 to 25 baht (RM2 to RM3).
“Malaysians are regular customers on weekends,” said a convenience store employee from Golok, Thailand.
This has caused concern among residents of the border state of Kelantan, particularly parents who believe that teenagers may consume such beverages due to their accessibility and low price.
“It will be easy for youngsters to smuggle these beverages into Malaysia and even convince their parents that they are soft drinks since the packaging resembles that of soft drinks.
“I’m also afraid that these drinks may be addictive,” said one parent.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
