School Placement

The letter of acceptance for Standard One arrived last Friday while I was out at a demo with a potential customer. My staff actually accidentally opened the letter and sent me a sms to apologise. I asked her to tell me if my son has been accepted in my school of choice and told her that she should not keep me in suspense la! I was so shocked that he was not placed in any of the 3 schools of my choice, instead was placed in some school so far away and of which I have not heard of. Well, I knew it's really hard to get into the school of your choice nowadays due to the overwhelming popularity of certain Chinese Schools but I didn't expect that I was not placed even in my 3rd choice!

Boy, was I distressed at that point. Good thing I was not attending to the potential customer alone, as I totally cannot concentrate at that point of time. My mind was racing with just one question playing again and again like a broken record; i.e. how ah, how ah, how ah...Then I remembered that one of my cousins whose son is studying in Kuen Cheng now. I called her to find out how she placed him there. She told me to call her older sister who knows someone who can help with the application. I of course immediately called her and asked her for help. She said she will try to call, but after checking with her daughter, she says I must call her everyday to check if she's done it or not as she's a very busy business woman, or rather "Si Tau Poh" running a very famous "Nyonya Kuih" factory!

This morning my friend whose daughter was accepted in that popular school (which was my first choice) was registering her daughter and found out that the school was offering 7 Standard One classes of 50 students each next year. However, the accepted numbers were not up to 350 students yet. Therefore, she advised me to go over to the office and try to see if an appeal is possible. I went equipped with my telephone bills and a road map to explain the closeness of my address to that school.

I had to take a number upon reaching that school and had to wait for about 6 numbers till it's my turn. Turned out that I can't do anything there. I was advised to go to the school where my son was placed to fill in the appeal letter. I rushed over immediately. I roughly knew where that school was after checking the road map. But I didn't expect it to look so miserably small and run down. I nevertheless went up to fill in the appeal letter and was told that I may only get the reply to my appeal sometime from October to December. Gosh! How can I wait that long? And if I do not get the appeal approved, how will I have enough time to find another school? This is totally unfair. I guess that's why so many children have to end up in private schools.

Then later today I talked to a customer about this and she said she knows the teachers in another famous Chinese School somewhere in Petaling Jaya. So she will help me call them tomorrow. Lets see what happens...but I am soooooooooooo worried....like all mothers would be wouldn't they??????