Saluting pioneers of convent school education

Headmistresses and teachers from the Penang and Kulim convent schools during a visit to the Cameron Highlands Convent School in the 1970s.

THE long, treacherous four-month sea journey to Malaya by three French nuns in 1852 will be remembered as the Infant Jesus Sisters in Malaysia celebrate their 170th anniversary this year.

The nuns, Sister Gregoire, Sister Gaetau and Sister Appolinaire, were later joined by four other nuns who arrived in October the same year under the leadership of Rev Mother Mathilde, the nun with a steely resolve to establish schools and orphanages in what was then Malaya.

According to the order’s website, the Infant Jesus Sisters’ mission in Malaya was founded that year and it was the order’s first mission on foreign soil.

The Infant Jesus Sisters were among the pioneers in formal and non-formal education in Malaya.

They established the first Infant Jesus Convent School, as well as the orphanage, in Light Street, Penang, and others soon followed.

According to Chen Yen Ling, the author of Lessons from My School: The journey of the French nuns and their convent schools, as more nuns arrived, they built schools in new areas gained by the British as the colonial master’s influence grew in the hinterland of Sultanate states and the need for English education became obvious.“In some remote places near plantations where local populations were small and where there were no English schools for boys, the sisters took in all the children to provide them with education and proper discipline.

“During the tenure of tireless Mother Tarcisius in the 1930s and 1940s, the opening of schools was unstoppable, even as World War II started in Europe, parts of Asia and was imminent that it would soon spread to South-East Asia,” she said.

Chen, a former student of St Anne’s Convent in Kulim, noted that in the course of expanding operations, the nuns endured many hardships in overcoming financial shortages besides prejudice against their religion and Western culture.

“During the Japanese occupation, the schools suffered disruption as the people endured the destruction of properties and lives.

“But the sisters were often blessed as very generous groups and individuals, including royal family members and philanthropists, would donate in cash and kind, including gifts of land and offers of the free usage of premises, pending new land being acquired and buildings erected.

“The public, parents of students, and alumni were also instrumental in contributing to the schools’ expansion efforts during special fundraising activities and also regularly assisting in day-to-day operations,” she added.

Barely four years after the war, in 1949, operations were bustling again with 32 orphanages and convent schools accommodating more than 1,000 abandoned babies and orphans, and 20,000 students respectively, according to Chen.She said that at a number of schools, grateful alumni (called “old girls”), who benefitted from the wholesome education and strict discipline instituted by the nuns, donated regularly and substantially to their alma mater.

The Convent Old Girls’ Associations founded by headmistresses for the main purpose of ensuring the convent girls remain connected and could come together in times of need, are still functional.

“Most of the schools that exist today were established during this period, with educational contents and standards broadened and upgraded, leading to the ‘convent school brand’ creation,” said Chen.

“The nuns have since retreated from direct administration of their schools since the nationalisation of these schools was implemented in stages from 1970 to 1982.”

She said they now only exercised their rights and responsibilities as owners of the physical school properties that were still owned by the religious order.

Today, 170 years since the mission was established, the Infant Jesus Sisters Institute has remained vigilant despite all the trouble over changing times and the nuns have held steadfast to their principles and duties of service to society.

“They are still one of the biggest, if not the biggest, benefactors to education in our country by lending free use of their many school premises which they once built for generations of children who grew up to be useful citizens.

“The schools, originally called the St Maur Sisters’ Schools, are still the largest group of schools consisting of 56 primary and secondary schools.

“They are nationalised but their private beginnings traced back to the time when European missionaries reached the shores of Malaya in the mid-19th century to open English-medium schools as requested by the British administration in the Straits Settlements,” wrote Chen.