This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Wednesday, September 20, 2006 |
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Dear Sec. 1 to Sec. 3 Students, A large portion of the sec 2 cohort (20 students from each class) had to go for this "Research Study on English and Mathematics" conducted by MOE today. The good part was that we were released at 1.15 for lunch so we could make it there on time. Well, that's the only good point. So brace yourseelves as i launch into a tirade of First off, the biggest problem was with the timing of this "research study". The people taking third language had to skip their lessons today cos of this thing. At least they have an official reason - MOE is in charge of both this and 3rd lang. But the problem is that there is a 3rd lang test TOMORROW. So it was utterly crucial for them to attend today's lessons for revision. But obviously, they couldn't make it if they went for this survey. Which brings me to point no. 2. Our class has 26 students, 20 of them have to go for this research study, and at least 10 of them take 3rd lang. So they had to get replacements from the other students. The worst part was that although there were 2 weeks' notice, everyone forgot about it and the replacements were done in a hurry about 30 mins b4 the thing started. After about 10 calls, a lot of rejected calls and getting our form teacher pissed off and shouting (according to Hubert), those of us who were not selected for the "research study" in the first place had to go grudgingly. That includes me. I had planned to either go for Gym or go to the iLounge to do some work/revision, but there went the rest of the afternoon. So no choice, had to go to LT4 for the "research study". We thought that it would be maybe some surveys or interviews, and once we were done, we could leave. But then one of the guys in charge But the worst part was not about the papers. There were 6 people in-charge who i assumed had been nominated by the MOE, and they kept on shouting at us non-stop, threatening to take down our names ("We will report your names to your principal! And also MOE! You will be blacklisted!") or to keep us back. So we all AP back at them. In the end, after all that shouting, finger-pointing and what crap, we started at 2.20 pm. (We assembled at 1.35 pm. Effective use of time, i must say.) And so nothing eventful happened while we were working on our papers, except that they continued with their threats against anyone who dared turn their heads. And I cut my finger on the paper. =.= I finised with 1 hour to spare, so i looked around and realised that i was the first to complete in the entire row of students taking the Maths paper. Wow. I didn't bother checking, so after half an hour of doing nothing, I decided to go talk to one of those guys in charge. "Excuse me, may I know when this will end?" "Why?" "I have to go for third language, and I have a test tomorrow." (this was obv a lie) "Where is that?" "Um, MOELC at Bishan. I have to be there by 4+." "No, we cannot let you go. We still have another test later." I strongly suspect that MOE just paid a few teachers to conduct this "research study". Extremely unproffesional in their way of handling things, and don't even know what "third language" is, although MOE also takes care of that. Either that, or they're some high-up officials in MOE who are so high up they don't bother to know about other affairs. In which case I believe they don't deserve to be in MOE. Later, towards the end of the paper, I purposely asked the same guy again whether I could go, and he shouted back, "NO!" When they finally collected the papers, everyone was cheering. But not for long. Suddenly, they announced that there was a "second paper" and everyone starting booing. But what to do? MOE say do, must do lor. This 2nd paper was 15 mins long. All of the questions in it were the "What's next in the pattern?" type which were chao easy. As someone exclaimed, "What is this paper for? Test our eyesight arh!" I got tyco again another time round. There were answers marked out on the question booklet, but they had apparently been erased off. But the pencil impression was still there. So i just copied all the answers except for a couple which the previous person didn't do. But this reflects rather badly on MOE's attitude towards this "research study." I can't believe they actually recycle question booklets for this, don't even print new ones. Finally, when it ended at 5 pm (40 mins later than the original schedule), after more shouting to "put down your pens! STOP!" the tests ended. Everyone was extremely noisy. So the guy shouted into the MIKE, "Shut up! Or else we'll keep the whole bunch of you back!" And since everyone was APing the "old men", we all cheered back in reply. At that moment, you could tell he was frigging pissed cos everyone was laughing and was actually noisier than b4 he shouted at us. But he had no choice but to let us go. Empty threats, pooh. So at the end, when everyone was leaving, I walked up to one of the guys and told him I had some feedback. I told him how friggin screwed the organisation of this "research study" was (albeit in a much more formal and polite tone.) I told him we had tests, and that's why nobody's cooperating. And at the end of it all, he had he would refer my feedback (which i highly doubt he would really do) and most surprising of all, he asked if I was a foreign student. You think what, our England very bad izit? Or izit cos i was too cheem for you to understand? Or do you look down on Hwachong, think we Chinese SAP school then all Cheena, cannot speak Engrish properly. You think only ang-moh can speak England very the good arh. We all Singaporeans also know how to code-switch one, not as lousy as gahmen think leh. And so it was one truly wasted afternoon. What's the use of getting students to do your papers when we don't want to take them seriously in the first place, thanks a lot to your ineffective "invigilators"? The results will thus be an under-estimation of our actual abilities. And what's the logic behind scheduling such a useless "research study" during a test week? Especially when you, as MOE, should know there's a third language test the next day. Lastly, we don't gain anything from this "research study". We sacrifice our time to be your test subjects, although not that we want to. Naturally, we would expect better respect. Not an afternoon of shouting, threats, attacks on our school. And especially not you taking down the names of students to be supposedly sent to our principal (whom i doubt they even know) or the MOE. This incident has left me with an extremely bad impression of MOE. |
'Twas teh winnar at 10:26 pm.
