Yuk Ing Girls' School : Two Sessions

The first school (Anglo Chinese School) run by Mr and Mrs. Hoover in Sibu 1905

Before the Japanese Occupation, the Yuk Ing Girls' school run by Mrs. Hoover in Sibu had two sessions. The Chinese full curriculum school was in the morning and the English "school" was in the afternoon.

Many students did the double curriculum and ended up bi lingual. Those who could not cope with English studied only in the morning. Most of my uncles and aunts were able to cope very well with English so they eneded up with two certificates at Junior Three. My aunt Lily was one of the first batch of graduates taught by Mrs. Hoover. Before the Second World War, she had already furthered her studies in Singapore at Nanyang Girls' School and qualified as a teacher. My aunt Lily taught Chinese and English until she retired in Singapore. My father and his brothers were bi lingual and they qualified to study in a Shanghai college in the early 30's.

there were 6 classes in the morning and 4 classes or groups in the afternoon as fewer students were interested in learning English. Besides, in those days, many of the day scholars had to work to help their parents.

How did Mrs Hoover manage this kind of work load?

She taught mainly Home Science, Needlework and craft work in the morning and some Bahasa Malay (Did you know that she wrote a small handbook for Malay words?)

In the afternoons she taught English to all the different classes with the help of Mr and Mrs. Chong Jin Bok.

She was an awesome, strict teacher.

Behind her back, many of her former students gave her the nickname of "Tigress". But they all loved her like a mother.

Grateful students like my Aunt Lily (RIP) used to send her medicines, bandages and other gifts from Singapore until Mrs. Hoover passed away in 1962.

Mr. Lau Tieng Sing's mother, for example, made sure that her son, Mr. Lau helped Mrs. Hoover every weekend to run errands, etc when he was studying in Perth.