Struggling student gets helping hand from observant teacher

The plight of a Year 3 student in Klang, Selangor, who recently lost his father, came to light when he turned up to school in a worn-out uniform and uncut hair on Monday.

Standing among several hundred other students during the school’s weekly assembly, the boy’s shabby appearance caught the attention of a teacher who grew concerned for his wellbeing.

According to the teacher, Nor Faisal Ishak, he immediately approached the student - whose name and age were not revealed - to check on him.

“It was the size of the trousers he was wearing that caught my eye. Besides, his hair was also quite long. I then took him to the side for a chat.

“I said: ‘Abang, don’t you have any other school pants (that you can wear to school)?’ To which he replied saying he has none, and that he has outgrown all his school uniforms,” said Faisal, who posted the encounter on Facebook.

The Bahasa Malaysia teacher then took the student to find some used school uniforms in the teachers’ room but none fit him.

This led the teacher to seek permission from the school administration to take “Abang” to get some new uniforms and also a haircut.

“He immediately put on the new pair of uniforms that we got at the supermarket. With his new haircut, Abang looks more handsome now. Like his teacher,” Faisal wrote.

‘I understand his hardship’

Besides getting the student’s new school uniform, the teacher said he also took him for lunch before getting ice cream for dessert.

This was when a lady who sat across their table suddenly gave some cash to Abang.

In a separate Facebook post, Faisal said he helped the student because he could understand the boy’s hardship, having grown up in a struggling family himself.

Faisal’s father, who worked as a police personnel, was struggling to make ends meet for him and his 10 siblings then.

Meanwhile, when contacted by Malaysiakini, the teacher said he was heartbroken when he saw Abang’s shabby appearance.

“I felt sad because how could I not notice the struggle of my student all these while, that I failed to see that he had been wearing a worn-out uniform all these while.

“His mother also knows about this and she has thanked me,” said Faisal, who said that he had also been feeding less fortunate students, especially on Fridays.

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