FORMER students recall Betty Toh as a strict teacher. In her Home Science classroom, her instructions were not suggestions.
If they were not followed exactly as she said, if her students were caught daydreaming, or worse, arrive without an ingredient or two, they knew a stern reprimand awaited.
“That’s why I told you onions first then the garlic!” she would call out across the class.
She was petite, and the nickname cili padi was befitting.
In her class, surrounded by woks, knives, forks, spoons and that ancient gas oven that had to be lit manually with a matchstick, there was simply no room for gentle chiding, affirmation or repeated instructions.
“There was a student who, instead of adding soy sauce to the fried rice towards the end, poured it into the eggs right at the beginning. So, she had black eggs!” Toh recalled recently, sharing the story with a group of former students over lunch.
The group all laughed loudly while inwardly recounting the many similar missteps they had in her class more than 30 years ago.
Home Science, also known as Sains Rumah Tangga (SRT), was a subject offered to all students where most sat for the paper in their Form 3 examinations, while some continued through Form 4 and 5 for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.
SRT was about managing a home and everyday living.
These lessons extended far beyond the classroom for students of SMK Assunta in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Besides cooking and meal planning, students were taught sewing, household management which included time management and financial planning, as well as table setting and etiquette.
The classes were hands-on, practical and the students mostly had fun.
“Without Toh and the needlework skills I learned in her class, I would have struggled with life’s little emergencies – missing buttons, torn hems, ripped pockets,” said Yasmeen Mateen, a mother of two.
Yasmeen said it would be good for children to learn these skills in school today.
To honour their former teacher, the group of ex-students invited Toh to lunch at Yasmeen’s house in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, so “we can prepare a meal and serve her our own cooking”.
The menu was simple yet hearty, a spread reflecting their early beginnings in that school kitchen and life’s lessons over the years – rice with fish curry, a one-pot healthy chicken dish, chicken varuval, spicy prawns, sambar, banana stem with potato and pineapple perattal and a stir-fried vegetable dish rounded off with scones and sugee cake for dessert.
Toh said she was glad for the reunion – different from all others. She promised to frame the group picture taken that day.
“I am so glad all of you can cook so well. I am so happy that all of you are doing well.”
Since her retirement, Toh, now 68, a mother to two sons and a grandmother to one, continues to remain active.
She supports various associations and community-based organisations such as Malaysian Menopause Society and Amazing Seniors.
Her teaching journey began in Kelantan before she moved to SMK Damansara Jaya in Selangor and later SMK Assunta.
