Thank You Teacher by Nik Nazifah

After about a week waiting for the results, at last, here they are! The class’ teacher, Mrs. Rozita, was handing out our exam results. There was an intense atmosphere in the class.

“Where are my results?” I whispered to myself. My heart was pumping fast.

“Abdul Rahman!” Spontaneosly I stood up and walked over to the teacher’s desk.The teacher took a look at my results and she smiled widely.

“Congratulations, I’m very proud of you.”

The smile she had on her face made me remind of a teacher, who had made me felt special and appreciated. I still remember that day. It was two years ago, when I was in the last year of primary school.

The sky was grey as it was about to rain. The pupils got into their classes to start
the lessons but not me. I was resting under a tree, somewhere that I thought the teachers could not find me. But it was an unlucky day.

“Why aren’t you in class yet?” I recognized the voice. Puan Kavita, the school headmistress, gave me a shock. There was an unpleasent expression on her face. She pulled my ear and dragged me to the staff room.

In her office, Puan Kavita stared at me. It was totally uncomfortable like she was
about to swollow me. I tried to avoid her eyes but I could feel her steaming anger
all around me and it made me sweat.

“Why are you behaving like this? Do you have a problem, Rahman?” she broke the silence. I turned my head down. She sighed.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. “Come in.” Puan Kavita answered. I was a bit relieved that she got her eyes off me. Then, a woman came in. “A new teacher, perhaps..” I thought. She took a seat. The two women started a
conversation and I was feeling ignored.

“Rahman, why don’t you escort Ms. Nadiah to your class?”

Puan Kavita turned to me. The new teacher, Ms. Nadiah looked and smiled at me.

Soon, we were off to the class. She followed me from behind. There was a complete silence. When we arrived at the class, I went straight to my desk, not bothering about the new teacher. My classmates were curious about the new teacher. The class monitor, stood up followed by the rest to greet the teacher but I remained stubbornly seated.

Ms.Nadiah introduced herself to the class. She was friendly, smiling all the time
and always trying to give attention to everyone. All of my classmates were really
happy with this new teacher but I showed no interest.

As time passed by, I started to have some interest to study. Her teaching style was interesting and enlighting. She always enliven the class with some jokes when the lessons became bored. Soon, I realized that I have missed too many lesson in the past. It was hard for me to keep up with the others but Ms. Nadiah
always supported me and help me in my studies.

One day, she gave the class some exercises as a test. When she passed by me, she was surprised to see that I had done a perfect answer.

During recess, I bumped into Chong. We just waved to each other. Chong and I used to be close friends. But since he was promoted to a higher class, we seldom meet each other anymore and soon became quite departed.

When I passed the staff room, I overheard a conversation among a few teachers. I went nearer to listen more clearly when I heard them mentioning my name. Ms. Nadiah was among them and they were discussing about me.

“Oh, that boy! I taught him last year. He was not interested at all in his study. Always skipping classes.”

Mrs. Koo, my former English teacher was complaining about me.

“Poor boy, he hasn’t seen his parents for a long time.”

“Where are his parents?” Ms. Nadiah asked.

“They were busy people, always travelling regularly. They left him with his
grandparents.”

Now, I could really felt that my teachers were sympatized and care about me. One thing that I learned at that moment was that teachers are really caring about their students.

“But I think Rahman has a potential to perform in his academics.”

I was surprised when Ms. Nadiah suddenly praised me. She took out the test paper that I did in class this morning and showed it to the other teachers. They were surprised to see that I answered the questions really well.

That was the first time that I felt so touched. My perceptions towards teacher all this while were wrong. I always thought teachers like to blame students. Teachers dislike those who did not do well in class.

The next day, after all what had happened yesterday, I felt that I have the strength to confide my problem to Ms. Nadiah. I went to see her after class. Before I could say anything, tears rolled down my cheeks. I asked her for an advice to cope with my lessons that I had missed too far behind. She told me not to worry and gave me some advices and guidance.

Since that day, I started to improve and keeping up with my lessons. I also became more respectful towards my teachers. As time passed by, UPSR examination were on. All the Year Six students sat for the examination which completed within five days.

A few months later, the UPSR results were released. That was a historical day for most Year Six students. When I checked my results which was pinned up on the school notice board, I was surprised. 5As! I looked upon at the teachers and smiled.

Suddenly, I heard a whispering voice. “Rahman, Rahman!” Raju was noticing me. Mrs. Rozita was about to leave the class. I quickly got up from my long recall memories. I commanded my classmates to stand up and we greeted,

“THANK YOU, TEACHER!”