"St Nicholas Convent was my alma mater. I had so many wonderful memories of the place. Now only a small portion of the perimeter wall remains," quips an old friend, her tone wistful. She’d recently returned from the United States for a long overdue visit and we now find ourselves in front of her former school's original site off Jalan Teluk Wanjah in Alor Star, Kedah.
Walking closer to scrutinise the last standing reminder of her school, the ex-convent girl starts regaling me with tales about the uncompromising dedication of the missionary sisters who once ran the place. According to her, Alor Star's St Nicholas Convent started accepting students in 1934 and served as an extension of Convent Light Street in Penang, the oldest girls' school in our country.
Inevitably, our conversation turns to the arrival of the pioneer female missionaries who risked everything, including their lives, to reach the shores of Penang in the 19th century. Hailing from their Infant Jesus Sisters (IJS) Mother House at historic Rue Saint-Maur in Paris, the sisters struggled against all odds to build an establishment that aimed to produce young women of good characters who were ready to face the challenges of adult life with conviction.
BIRTH OF THE INFANT JESUS SISTERS
Since its inception in 1666, the IJS had always remained true to their core principle of providing quality charitable education to those who needed it most. Father Nicolas Barre, the founder, initially sought the assistance of ordinary women to teach and manage the schools that he set up for poor girls and displaced young women in and around Rouen. It was Father Barre's belief that education was the best way for impoverished people to get out of the unforgiving and vicious poverty cycle.
Over time, the dedicated lady teachers found identity as a collective and committed themselves as a religious community called the IJS. Aside from helping those who were less fortunate, the women also came to realise that, with literacy, came better access to knowledge and that, in turn, translated to a level of personal independence that they’d never experienced before as well as better quality lives centred around religious moral values.
Eager to share the benefits with others outside France, the IJS began making preparations for some of their members to leave their Rue St Maur home and head out into the world. Penang, as one of the few established British colonies in the Far East at that time, was chosen by those brave pioneering women as their maiden flagship mission abroad.
DANGEROUS SEA VOYAGE
The long and arduous voyage was fraught with difficulties and hardship. The first team of five sisters, of which only three arrived in Penang in April 1852 failed to set up the first convent due to a string of tragic circumstances. Despite this initial set back, the subsequent arrival of other female missionaries six months later successfully established Convent St Maur Penang, as Convent Light Street was then called.
Through sheer courage, determination, diligence, commitment and sacrifice, they went on to build foundation pillars for subsequent establishments in Melaka and Singapore before reaching Japan in 1867.
The timing of their arrival couldn’t have been better. Nineteenth-century Penang was a thriving centre of commerce that held much promise. Soon after Captain Francis Light, on behalf of the British East India Company, leased Penang from Kedah and established a trading post in 1786, many were drawn to the economic opportunities the island offered. Although missionary societies of various denominations were known to have despatched their representatives to Penang as early as the turn of the 19th century, those who arrived were mostly men.
During those early days, the only few women who ventured to Asia were wives, sisters or relatives who supported the men in their work abroad. Things began to change from the 1850s onwards when missionary societies began to actively recruit and send unmarried female missionaries overseas. This was in response to increasing calls in Western society to give women equal opportunities and more prominent roles in mission work.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR GIRLS
Penang, like the other parts of the Straits Settlements, in the 19th century was clearly a male-dominated society. There was little public demand for education and the Bengal government in Calcutta, the capital of British territory in India until 1911, was unwilling or unable to channel any money into educational development, much less education for girls. Moreover, most people in Penang at the time felt that girls didn’t need to be educated.
The subsequent four female missionaries who arrived in Penang in October 1852 were well positioned to fill this gap and change the local mind-set. Furthermore, these founding sisters were skilled in other specialised services like social skills and medical work.
The wholesome education that the IJS offered for their charges included classes in sewing, knitting and cooking as well as simple reading, writing and arithmetic. Together with rudimentary academic and character-building courses, these faculties equipped the women with the necessary skills to both contribute to the local workforce as well as properly bring up their families.
The IJS first operated at Church Street where Mother St Mathilde Raclot was its first Superior. Mother Raclot is largely recognised as the founder of the IJS convent school establishment in Malaya. As in other later establishments, this first convent was a private concern, fully raised and operated by the early sisters who saved every single cent they possibly could from generous benefactors and supporters. Attendance increased gradually and seven years later, the original site became acutely inadequate.
By then, the sisters had saved a modest sum and decided to buy an affordable piece of land located at the fringe of a still growing George Town to build their new school. The sisters moved to Light Street in 1859 during the tenure of Mother St. Damien, the second Superior of Penang.
Five years earlier, Mother Raclot, together with Sister St Appollinaire, Sister St Gaetan and Sister St Gregoire, made the decision to move further south to Singapore. Working on the idea contributed by Reverend Father Jean-Marie Beurel of the Paris Foreign Mission Society or the Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP), the sisters established the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) on Feb 5, 1854 to provide a safe place that would house a school for girls, an orphanage and an asylum for destitute widows.
Father Beurel, who arrived in Singapore in 1852, started St Joseph’s Institution for the education of boys, first missionary establishment of the La Salle Brothers (LSB) in the Far East. Their building in Bras Basah Road started off as an attap hut. The cornerstone of a new school building was laid on March 19, 1855 which coincided with the Feast of Saint Joseph. The new central classroom block was completed in 1865 and further expansion of the facilities continued well into the 20th century.
ORPHAN CARERS
The CHIJ orphanage in Singapore's Victoria Street accepted and cared for orphans and unwanted babies. Many of these babies were found on the doorsteps of the convent wrapped in rags or newspapers, abandoned by their mothers who couldn’t care for them. The babies were often disabled, deformed or weak, and were usually girls.
Despite their many notable achievements in the Straits Settlements, the IJS and LSB only managed to make sluggish progress in the Malay States until British intervention began during the third quarter of the 19th century. The British, beginning with the East India Company delegated the function of producing English-literate men and women to the MEP. This was aimed at supporting its workforce in the government and commercial enterprises.
The MEP invited the IJS and LSB to take over its church schools for girls and boys respectively on the condition that lessons were conducted entirely in English. The French sisters and brothers accepted the challenge. From then on, they began operating and expanding their schools independently, penetrating deep into the peninsular hinterlands by the turn of the 20th century.
"It's getting rather hot here. Let's make a move. Can we take a quick look at the current school location?" my friend asks. Her timely remark makes me realise that the late morning sun is already high above our heads. We resume our discussion about the development of missionary school education going into the 20th century during the drive towards Jalan Tanjung Bendahara.
POPULAR EDUCATION STYLE
By the late 1890s, the missionaries in Penang began moving to the mainland and headed towards Ipoh. Along the way, the IJS made regular stops at various towns to meet local residents and build goodwill for the establishment of future schools. Among the places they visited were Alor Star, Sungai Petani, Nibong Tebal, Parit Buntar and Taiping.
Each time, their reputation far preceded their arrival. The sisters’ brand of convent schools had grown in popularity and they’d become famous themselves for their character-moulding approach and strict discipline. Wealthy local businessmen stepped forward voluntarily to extend financial aid to entice the sisters to set up school in their locale. An unsubstantiated report even told of a successful merchant who was willing to be legally responsible for one of the sisters on the condition she took four of his daughters under her wing.
By the mid-20th century, the larger convent schools started receiving partial funding and eventually, all of their schools became quasi-government aided. Convent Light Street remained the main and nerve centre for administration of all IJS affiliated schools in Malaysia and Singapore until the early 1960s.
END OF AN ERA
Among the last few schools established by the IJS was Convent Green Lane in Penang. Officially declared open on April 3, 1961 the school began lessons with just 12 classrooms. In her address in the school's first year book in 1966, headmistress Sister Helen O'Sullivan lauded the students' sterling performance and urged them to make full use of the art and needlework rooms as well as the junior laboratories that were recently built.
Throughout their illustrious history, all IJS affiliated schools displayed exemplary academic performance and their students' command of the English language was second to none. The sisters remained firmly in charge and their no-nonsense regime produced legions of affluent students who later went on to assume impeccable leadership roles in life.
The situation, however, began to gradually change after Merdeka. The installation of nationalisation programmes by the Ministry of Education after Independence marked the period when the sisters began to progressively retreat from administrative duties and hands-on teaching. The sisters were completely out of the picture after Malaysian schools were fully nationalised by the late 1970s.
A LEGACY
Finally, the car comes to a grinding halt in front of the school's main entrance after braving the chock-a-block traffic at the junction of Jalan Langgar and Jalan Tanjung Bendahara. My friend takes a look at the building in front of her and immediately expresses dismay. "The building is new and the field is larger but as a whole it lacks character. The name has also been simplified to Convent Alor Setar," she adds, her voice low.
Back in the car, I come across an item bought at Alor Star's flea market several weeks ago hidden among parking coupons and receipts in my car door side pocket. I’d completely forgotten about the purchase until today. My friend who’s in the antique business in New York immediately recognises it as a rare pre-World War II French made Bunsen burner. Putting two and two together, she speculates that it could have been bought by the sisters when St Nicholas Convent was established and discarded when the school moved to its current premise in 2001.
This unexpected revelation leaves me speechless. In a way, I’m glad to own a treasured piece of St Nicholas Convent's legacy, a reminder of the many selfless contributions made by the missionary sisters in educating and improving the lives of women for generations, not only in Penang and Kedah but throughout the whole of Malaya.