Former S'pore teacher, 102, passes away, ex-student, 86, comes to pay final respects

A former teacher and principal who dedicated nearly 40 years to education has passed away at the age of 102.

A student she had known for 78 years came to pay her last respects.

Zheng Lin Baoluan passed away peacefully on Jun. 7 at her daughter's home, according to Shin Min. She had three children.

A life shaped by war and education

Her youngest daughter, Zheng Xiuhui, 60, a writer, told Shin Min that her mother had attended Fairfield Methodist Girls' School as a student and lived through the Second World War.

Despite living through the war, the elder Zheng never let it interrupt her studies. Her daughter recalled that her mother once sat for an exam the day after an air raid. After graduating around 1945, she returned to teach at her alma mater, Fairfield Methodist Girls' School, and later won a scholarship to study in the UK.

The elder Zheng later left the school in the 1960s to join the Ministry of Education as a School Inspector, a role she held until her retirement in 1984.

Care

Among those at the wake was Lin Meinan, 86, a former Fairfield Methodist student who first met the elder Zheng at the age of eight and had remained close with her for more than 70 years.

Lin recalled how the elder Zheng had gone out of her way to help her prepare for exams, even though she was not her form teacher at the time.

She said:

"To help me do well in exams, she would often invite me to her home during exam periods to help me revise, even though she was not my form teacher at the time."

Lin described her as a strict principal, but one who genuinely cared for her students more than anyone she had ever known, per Shin Min.