BEHIND the main canteen of SMK St Francis, Malacca – a school built in 1880 by missionaries – is a smaller eating space with a sign that reads “Kantin Melayu” (Malay canteen).

The school, better known by its former name St Francis Institution or SFI, is one of at least four other mission schools and a handful of vernacular schools in the state that have built a second canteen – for Muslim pupils and staff.