Stormtrooper helps pupils beat first-day blues

May the Force be with you: A volunteer dressed as a Stormtrooper greeting Year One pupils in their classroom at SK Ayer Itam.

GEORGE TOWN: For this Storm­trooper, the mission was not to spread fear on behalf of the Galactic Empire, but to help Year One pupils beat the first-day blues.

Unhappy and fearful expressions quickly turned into smiles and giggles when a volunteer dressed up as an Imperial soldier from the Star Wars movies showed up at the compound of SK Ayer Itam yesterday.

The pupils also seized the opportunity to greet the Stormtrooper when he stepped into the Year One classrooms accompanied by headmistress Salizawati Omar and parent-teacher association (PTA) chairman Azhar Hanapi.

Another volunteer wielded a light­­saber, a weapon used by Jedi Knights and their Sith enemies in the film series.

Azhar said the meet-and-greet was the school and PTA’s idea to cheer up pupils on the first day of school.

“In Year One, pupils are quite anxious and some even cry when their parents leave them in class. We hoped this character would calm them down,” he said.

Azhar said 32 pupils had enroll­ed in Year One at the school in Jalan Kampung Melayu.

He added that the school had dedicated classrooms for special needs and there were three such pupils in this year’s intake.

“Most of the pupils here are also from low-income families,” he said.

A spokesman for the state Edu­ca­tion Department said 20,972 pupils enrolled in Year One in Penang this year.

Traffic was reduced to a crawl on several roads near schools on the first day of the new term yesterday.

“The situation is always like this during school hours but today, it was worse because parents accompanying their Year One children parked indiscriminately, causing a jam,” said S.K. Chua, a parent.