St. Michael’s And St Angela’s To Merge
By Liza Mohd

Seria - Two private schools in Seria, St Michael's and St Angela's, will merge following the closure of St Michael's School, marking the end of the all-boy and all-girl private schools in the country.

A total of 241 St Michael's students are required to move to the all-girl school starting next year, but so far about 100 students have opted to continue their studies there as most prefer to study in government schools. St Angela's will have to cater for an additional 100 students on top of 360 existing students.

"It (only) seems (like) yesterday that St Michael's School celebrated its 50"' anniversary last year, but barely a year after that it has to shut."

Borneo Bulletin spoke to St Michael's Senior Master, Mr Michael Nayagam; a 47-year- old Malaysian who has been teaching in St Michael's School for 25 years, a father of two children and among eight foreign teachers from Philippines, Sri Lanka and India who were given three months notice of termination.

Twenty-five teachers, staff and the school principal were retrenched due to the closure. Furthermore, they need to submit their application and wait in the employment queue, if they wish to teach in St Angela's School.

No priority is given to their application, despie their long service of ten to twenty years of teaching at the school, according to the notice. It is understood that both private schools are run by the same board of governors but under two separate administrations.

But it was learned that some St Michael's teachers have undergone interviews to teach at the all-girl school and it is looking to hire few of them. In addition, St Angela's is expected to hire new teachers to tutor Form Six students.

Teachers were stunned when the three-minute announcement was made by the school board members at noon of September 27, citing staggering decrease of students and financial difficulties as the main reasons behind the closure.

The news of termination came as a blow to the teachers who did not see the bad news coming, said Mr Nayagam. Teachers and school officials are well aware of the drastic drop in students at the school for the past ten years but teachers and staff remained cooperative in raising funds for the school such as charity dinners and walks. Their cooperation and loyalty to the school were reflected by the fact that the teachers and staff had raised a huge amount of $102,000 for the golden jubilee anniversary last year due to the generous contribution by the community.

He refuted reports that the community had not been a help and noted that the former students, parents and associations had contributed a lot by sponsoring.

Sports equipment and efforts towards the well-being and appearance of the school.

Asked what could have contributed to the drop in students in the past decade, Mr Nayagam believed that the decreasing number of BSP expatriates, the opening of government schools at strategic locations and people moving to schools nearer to their homes were contributing factors.

Mr Nayagam, who unofficially received his 25-year service award last week, recalled the glory days when there were 800 students atthe school in 1981. Teachers and officials understood that the school had always run on a shoestring budget with no annualincrements and no bonuses, except for promotions for the past ten years.

"We are not frustrated that we are going tobe jobless soon, but upset with how matters were dealt, and we feel like losing out on our family members. Even parents were disappointed with the sudden move and said they could have been approached earlier," he added. He expressed his gratitude to parents and former students for their heartfelt support.

However, the decision to shut the school has been finalised after long and hard deliberations among the school board members since July this year.

St Michael's has been run by seven principals with the last one being a local. The school offers remission to students from poor financial background and some are under full-paid scholarships.

The school also extended its academic option by opening up Form Six learning class.

Meetings with parents regarding the drastic changes were held on Thursday last week at St Michael's School and on Monday at St Angela's School. Some parents showed discomfort as they preferred to send their daughters to an all-girl school, while a few hoped that the latter will measure up to their expectations in terms of academic and facilities previously provided in St Michael's School.

St Michael's School building will no longer operate and learning equipment such as computers and monitors as well as sports equipment will be handed over to St Angela's School. There is also speculation that the building will be renovated to make way for other learning projects.

The multi-racial school produced valuable students who regularly remain in contact with the teachers. One of the school's renowned ex-students is Pehin Dato Seri Paduka Lim Jock Seng, the Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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