I’m still getting to grips with Malaysian education. This week a parent asked me to look at his son’s exam paper, to see why he hadn’t scored particularly highly. The exam paper contained several language errors – but the boy already knew that if he didn’t repeat the error in his answer, he’d lose marks, so that wasn’t a problem –
And then there was an interesting choice of text for the comprehension passage –
Hardly the most useful language for the 21st Century:
Me: ‘Why haven’t your parents come to pick you up?’
Pupil: ‘Still they all are fleeting, Miss Louise.’
Me: ‘And what are your goals for this year?’
Pupil: ‘I’m determined for to pass my exams.’
Me: ‘Who’s that small man beside you wearing a mask?’
Pupil: ‘He’s my little crook.’
etc etc.
Not only that, but the poor child had answered the question correctly, then the teacher had made him change it and turn it into a complete nonsense.
As far as I’m aware, no sheep has ever managed to move by tail power, no matter how hard they wag them.
My second educational experience this week was the Discovery of the Body Exhibition in Malacca.
It is designed, the advertising blurb tells us, to teach us ALL about the human body.
But once we got inside, we realised that they would not be teaching us about every single part of the human body; some parts were most definitely off-limits –
Note the scarf – carefully chosen to co-ordinate with the decor.
And the modern equivalent of a figleaf –
or two –
Queen Victoria would have thoroughly approved.
Then last month, there was the story about a teacher who was conducting inappropriate relationships …
… in the student affairs office.
Best rename the room to avoid confusion, I thought.