Unique college set up to train English teachers

THE move by the Malayan government to set up a teacher training college in a foreign country followed an urgent need for teachers in English medium schools after the Second World War.

According to “Kirkby College-A Heritage”, there was no training college for English teachers and the role, at the time, were filled by direct recruitment of probationary teachers by these schools under the “Normal Class System.”

Under the scheme, probationary teachers received training in education theory, practical training, English language and Literature from senior teachers over the weekends.

Upon completion of the three-year-training they would be recognised as qualified teachers.

The Malayan Teachers Union in 1948 called for the setting up of teacher-training college.

A training college in Kota Baru, Kelantan was planned but only scheduled to be ready in 1954.

There was an urgency as enrolment of students had increased..

According to “Kirkby College-A Heritage”, what would become the Malayan Teachers’ Training College (MTTC), Kirkby was originally Kirkby Fields Hostel, which was intended to accommodate ordinance factory workers. Due to the shortage of teachers in Britain towards the end of the war, the Board of Education established 55 temporary colleges in different parts of England.

Offers were sent to all British colonies and the Government of the Federation of Malaya decided to use the facilities as a teachers’ training college.

According to “Kirkby College-A Heritage”, Robert Williams, the first principal of the College described the move as unique in the history of education. “For the first time, the Government of a country had established in a far-off land a teachers’ college for its own students. Never before had any Government in the world set up its own College in Britain. The Board of Governors was appointed in Autumn 1951 with the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool as the Chairman. The University of Liverpool Institute of Education undertook the examination of Kirkby students thus ensuring that the professional standards of the College should be equivalent to those of its member colleges. At the same time the Institute allowed freedom for the Malayan College to develop in the way best suited for training for teaching in Malaya.”