Here I am (or actually, there I was, since I'm back now.) in our ex-sister school Kolej Yayasan Saad, Melaka (KYSM) . Yeah, you know, the school we used to share a name with right until they decided to give us away for adoption. Seems we were too much to handle. Only financially. I hope.

Physically, the school is larger and more s p a c i o u s. It takes longer to walk from one end to the other. They have much much better facilities. Like a 300m swimming pool. According to a newspaper clipping that they prominently display in the foyer, the pool is the only one in a secondary school in South East Asia.

They also have a fully equipped music room. Enough instruments to make up a whole orchestra. Which, incidentally, they do have. Very well known too, so I heard.

The college's education system is built on these five pillars : Academic, Character Development, Music, English, and Rugby.

Academic : From what I observed, they're really serious about that. Not enough for having school hours which begins at 7.40 up to 4.20 (longer than us, and they're JUST in secondary school! And they also have Saturday classes. So what are we complaining about?), they also have compulsory prep sessions (self-study in classrooms) every evening from 8 to 10.30 pm. No wonder they've been named the top school for SPM and PMR for a few years now.

Character Development : I think this translates to "Get a life". But I could be wrong. heh. Clubs/Societies, Visits to places etc.

Music : Watching MTV all day long. JUST KIDDING. They have music lessons fitted into the timetable. Or something like that.

English : Speaker's Corner, Workshops, a Veritas-like magazine called ARGUS.

Rugby : huh? yeah, I was pretty surprised as well. It doesn't seem to fit in with the other pillars. What's up with Rugby anyway? not everyone can play that game. Half the school population doesn't (it's a co-ed school, see.). They could've used Sports in general, what with the really long pool, squash courts, gym and nicely trimmed hockey field but NOOO, Rugby is THE sport to play. Could anyone be more prejudiced?

Someone mentioned that Rugby is a favourite pastime of Tan Sri Wira Halim Saad. (He's the school benefactor. Notice the similarity between his name and the school's? And he gets his own little bungalow in the school compound. Neat.) Great. So to produce future citizens who are really rich and successful (and earn or buy a few accolades in the process. "Tan Sri Wira". That's a really cool title. Kinda reminds me of the Commonwealth 98 mascot.) they've presumably decided to literally emulate every aspect of his childhood. That's for the boys.

What about the girls then? Oh, I guess they can emulate his wife. I'm just guessing here, but something tells me she doesn't play Rugby. Oh what's that? "Which wife?"? The one he married over the weekend in Singapore of course. Can't possibly be talking about the foreign ex-wife who took away his kids (and almost half his assets). Now, she, on the other hand, is definitely rough and rugby material. That's why they're in the scrum to begin with. Heh.

I'm digressing here. I personally have nothing against (Tan Sri Wira) Halim. I think he's a great guy who has some little problems. But then, who doesn't? I myself wouldn't want to politicise anything. The politicians are already doing a good job at that. Google him to find out more. Back to the topic on the college shall we?

The school population is around 290 students. That's about 60 students per batch. Of which, 10 per batch are non-bumiputeras. I have met some and would like to say that I am very impressed. Not only are they intelligent and accomplished, these students are far from being proud or snobbish. They're just polite and sweet and nice. Almost perfect. Even their ex-students whom I have for classmates now are of the same calibre. :)

KYS is a private school which provides free education. To get in, you have to go through a strenuous selection procedure. Past year statistics show that there are usually 66 students applying for 1 place. Good luck.

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What was I doing there in the first place? The computer club organised a job attachment with them. The whole Computer Club went (that's 5 members.) We fiddled around with some computers, wires, software and a 2 mega bytes per second line. For five days. While everyone else were fully utilising their time to revise and consolidate their notes in light of the ever-approaching A level examinations next month. Gulp!