Teachers

For two day in a row, I have been assisting my youngest daughter with doing the correction on her `agama’ examination mistakes. Oh, yeah, she failed btw, poor baby, and she failed very badly too. Between pacifying and reasoning with her, I can actually feel her pain.

You may wonder why it took me two day to finish the corrections with her; truth was the questions were killing alright. God, it was damn tough and honestly, I don’t even know some of the answers. What were these people thinking when they were doing the questions, I didn’t send my daughter to school to be `Ustazah’. She has to know about `agama’, that’s a must, but why are some of the questions so deep? Do you in your right mind think that a 12 year plus could understand what a 50 years old don’t? Come on give me a break ok.

She was so cute, she even went back to the `Ustaz’ and asked him, if it is possible for him to give her a few more marks, so that she will pass the examination. Well, teachers in school they always hold the kids at random, he agrees, however on the condition that she writes him a letter, promising him that she will score 80/100 in her final exam. I was like……. What? Innocently, she told me, how can I promise that, but I can try to get 70/100, so I told her forget it. You don’t have to write the letter, he can keep his marks and you go on and do your best.

I have long been frustrated with our education system, but do we have a choice? When my son was in grammar high in Australia, the Principal in his school told me proudly that the then Minister of Education 3 sons were also studying in the same school. I think he was the Sulaiman guy or something, so imagine that? The Education Minister himself does not trust our system, and just because we cannot afford to send our kids out of the country, we have to swallow all the shit.

Anyways, I decided to send my daughter to private school, simply because she will have more quality time with the teachers (boy was I wrong), and the extra curriculum will be beneficial to her. The only extra things that I can see in her current school system is that they offer the kids extra language, e.g Spanish, French or Arabic, other than that all are pretty much the same as the full government school. The other advantage is that they stay longer in school, so parents can take their time and do not have to join in the already over congested working hour’s road.

During Hishamuddin’s time, we witnessed all sorts of changes to the current education system, so much so that I am already loosing track of what is in and what’s out. There was this time, we were informed that we can already send our kids to the International School……………….. ahhh for real? Check again, tipu lagi!!. Amal was initially in Garden International School, then we had to take her out because my previous nationality could not be accepted as a non resident. So, when I saw the latest announcement, I went back to Garden and was told that, they are yet to receive any instruction from the Government. Hemm……………….. do you think, I should keep on hoping???? Beruban la!!!! Btw, do you know where Hishamuddin’s kids are schooled?

Can you also recall, how our kids were allowed to bring hand phones to school? Yeah, of course most parents feel good about that, mainly for security reasons. However, one day when I went to school to fetch my daughter, I saw her crying outside the security post. I was shocked, because this little monkey when she cries, I will cry more. Once inside the car, she told me that the prefect had confiscated her phone, as usual all hell broke loose. I called the school and demanded for explanations, the rest was history.

I am confused, the Ministry of Education will publish something and the school will do another thing, does this mean that the Ministry of Education is just a shame, like many other Ministries?