They Blurted..

I don’t think I know them that well. I can’t even recall their names, except for one in their group. Not that I have such a bad memory hor. This is because I am neither their tutor nor lecturer and we were never being formally introduced. But certainly we always exchanged simple greetings when our path crossed in the college compound.

I was walking towards a coffee shop for dinner. They saw me, they waved to him and merrily asked me to join them. I thought that would be quite a good idea too.

During the dinner, many light conversations were exchanged. I think I quite enjoyed the atmosphere in general. But some topics they brought up towards the end did make me worried for them.

Apparently, they were disappointed with many things. I don’t think they enjoy the stay in the college. They complained about almost every teacher they have, except their mother tongue teacher, I think. They find some teachers contradicting themselves at times when explaining concepts ; they find some teachers are biased and only demoralized them more …

They know I am teaching Mathematics and of course they have their reservation in complaining about their Mathematics teacher. Haha.. I’m kidding. I know the teachers in my department are all doing fine. :o)

Some comments blurted out from them ..

“Mr Nanzi, you see. If a student submits in 3 pages of seriously done assignment, would any teacher disregards the assignment, returns it unmarked and says ‘this is not what I want’ ”?!!

“Where got ask student to use the foolscap paper (with lines drawn horizontally in the portrait format) and insist to write the assignment in landscape format one? So weird right? Ya lah, I know in the landscape format the table can be neatly presented in one row. In the portrait format, the table needs to be broken into another line. But this is personal preference what. Not wrong lor.”

“Every time I want to find the teacher, cannot find. Never mind. Some more the teacher said ‘I don’t believe in consultation’. Then how?”

“Then got one question in our assignment, same as *JC one. I happen to have the solution from my friend, printed for his class by their teacher. And I copied exactly. For that 8 mark question, how come I get only 3 marks? Wa.. Our JC more powerful than the *JC lor. ”

“And hor, got one question, my friend answer is 12. My answer is also 12. I copied from him one lah. His work was marked correct. My work was marked wrong. But later I know the correct answer is 10. The teacher anyhow mark one lah. ”

“I thought teacher is supposed to motivate us. If cannot motivate us never mind. But how can demoralize us almost all the time?! The teacher keeps telling us we are not good enough. Keep telling us if we do badly, then something can be done so that we cannot do the subject again even if we were to repeat. Wa lao..”

“I still respect the teacher as a teacher. If not I would have consulted other teacher. But again I want to seek consultation also difficult. You know, I look at the teacher, I also don’t feel like asking any question. If not I would have complain to the principal. I have enough proofs. She will sure get it one. But again, the principal is also…. Don’t know lah.”

“The teacher don’t believe we can be good. You know N's English is very good. N submitted her drafts. Then the teacher doesn’t believe the drafts are her own work and said she must have copied from some books or internet resources. Now N is so sad.”

- - - - -

They actually went on for quite a while..
Some other comments were even more derogatory.

Letting them go on and on may be rather unhealthy. They will be just digging deeper and deeper into a dark tunnel. When will they then see the light?

I tried so be as neutral..
I tried to let them see all teachers want to help, just that these students may not have gotten used to their teachers’ approaches. And probably the teachers’ kind intentions had been misinterpreted. I tried. But I think I failed quite miserably. Haiz..

Of course, they are now worried about their promotional changes.
But sadly, they are now also worried about if they were to be promoted, will their teachers follow them to second year? They really hope for a change and a change for the better.

I only hope they can still stay motivated and strive to do well in the Promotional Examination, regardless.

I can only do so little. Mm..
Actually, I can nothing about it. Mm..
But still.... dreaming I could do something. Mm..