St Michael's Closure 'Disappointing'
By Jason Thomas

Bandar Seri Begawan - Teachers, parents and former students of St Michael's School have expressed their indignation at the closure of Seria's oldest English school after 60 years of service to the community.

Because of financial difficulties during recent years, the school issued a three-month notice to all of its, teachers last month that it would close.

All the students will be relocated to its sister school, St Angela's, next year, but the soon-to-be unemployed teachers are the ones bearing the brunt of the decision as they are forced to find jobs elsewhere.

"Basically, even though I knew the school has been suffering for some time, I don't understand why they have to take such a drastic decision," said a long serving teacher.

"The staff and parents were never consulted when the decision to close the school down was made in July.

"We are all so upset about the fact that they waited so long before telling us about their decision and that we only received the letter of termination' on September 27."

He added that several parents wanted to help out the school with donations and fundraising and one parent even offered to make a donation of $10,000.

"What they did is not fair," complained another teacher.

Disappointed by the closure, the teacher said the board of directors, should have informed the teachers about the closure in July, when the decision was made, so that they could try to find teaching positions elsewhere.

"Now that they have put us out on the street, how are we going to survive and feed our families if we don't get any job by next year?" asked the teacher, who has had many sleepless nights pondering his future and that of the school.

Some parents also articulated their displeasure about the school's closure, especially since the school enjoyed such a rich history. "The school has been around

for decades, and I was surprised and upset that it is suddenly going to close," said Zulkifli Sulaiman, an executive of the parent teachers association whose two sons in Primary 3 and Primary 5 will move to St Angela's next year.

"If I am in the teachers' shoes, I can't imagine how hard it will be to find jobs, as most of them are private teachers," said the 48-year-old engineer at Brunei Shell Petroleum.

Zulkifli said if the school had had a long-term plan, it would have been able to do something to prevent such a drastic measure like the closure.

"Maybe they could reduce the number of teachers and campaign for more students," he said. "Or the teachers, if they were willing, could take a pay cut."

Mohd Satria Alam Shah, one of the thousands of Belait residents who had graduated from St Micheal's, said he felt broken hearted about the closure. "I was a student there from kindergarten until Form 5 in

1998, and the school was a major part of my life," said the 25-year-old religious inspector at the Department of Syariah Affairs.

"My dad used to go to that school as well, so seeing it shut down hurts," Mohd Satria said. "I really sympathise with the teachers because they were given such short notice.

"When I first heard about the school closure through a phone call from my old teacher, I could hear sadness in his voice," he said.

Taking matters into his own hands, Mohd Satria approached the chairman of the board of directors and the president regarding the possibility of a group of private investors, led by himself, taking over the school.

"However, they refused because they had some plans and wanted to do something to re-, tain the St Michael's name," hk said, adding that he had heard about plans to establish a continuing education centre, but nothing had been confirmed as yet.  -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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