Oh, Pity Thee (PT3)...

I welcome the change for the students. PT3 is one good examination with the bars set up way higher than before. Now that the results are out, the students and parents especially have been dismayed with their results. Instead of pointing at how terrible and topsy-turvy our education system is for changing systems and implementing different kinds of styles for students, why not ask what kind of students do we have in Malaysia generally. I said GENERALLY, not to some who has fought a good fight and achieved their string of A's. Congratulations to those who have scored. Well done~! You deserve it.

What kind of students do we have:

1. Pure lazy students, so lazy to the cores that I almost wring their necks when I see them every week. They refused to even do their own revision and look through their books. They said they don't have revision books. So, I asked them to buy. They're not poor students who can't afford to buy a book. They said it's a waste of money to buy revision book. Fine~! So, I asked my other students who didn't need those books anymore and gave them the books. Lo' and behold... they refused to even open the book to read the Science facts. Fantastic, right? They have done those Science papers which needed high thinking order skills before the exams. Three months is more than enough if you know your facts~! So, why did the students get C, D, E and F for Science? Their heads are empty with no knowledge and simple facts at all. Did the school teachers teach them in school? The answer is YES so parents, stop judging the teachers thinking that teachers are incompetent. Start looking at how you raise up your children. They are just plain lazy.
2. I have parents calling me and complaining that their children are not doing well. Did I not guide that child? Yes, I did. Did that child co-operate? No, he did not. What did that child do? That child simply refuse to even move an inch to think how to get the answer. And the answer was right in front of the eyes if the child would care to read the full page passage. There were just so many words but the answers were there. So, is that paper really that difficult? The answer is again, NO. Malaysian students who didn't do well were just too ignorant to know their facts or to even put on their thinking cap. They are deteriorating. If I were to compare them on yearly basis, the teenagers I taught 10 years ago would still be better than this year's. Who to blame? Do you know that even one day before the exam when I gave crash course, they were still holding on to the Science book and flipping through the pages for the answers? They didn't even have their facts at their fingertips. And even if this PT3 is an open book exam, they wouldn't find the answer because they didn't know from which chapter and from which form. Sad, right? That's how terrible our students are, majority of them. Only a small fraction know what they're studying. Not only Science. In almost every subject, they do not know where to find their answers. Don't say there are too many subjects to study. All the long time ago students managed well. We know where and from which chapter so I was shocked that they did not know. I even tell them repeatedly from where yet when they came to almost the same kinda question, they still didn't know. It's like they have never seen the question when they just answered the question a week ago. Wonderful students we have...
3. No time to study and prepare for the exam. Will you all please stop bullshitting? They have all the time in the world to press the phone. They press the phone and press the phone. It's like without those smartphones they will die.  So, in the end it has been proven that indeed the phones are smarter than them~! They chat with their friends and they chat and chat and chat but they never bother to take out the books to read. The moment they open the books they said they wanted to sleep. They were tired looking at those printed pages. You ask them and see whether they have time to study or not. If we, the older generation could sit down and studied the whole day, why couldn't they. Aren't we all humans?
4. I told them if they don't buck up, they would fail. And yes, they failed literally with an 'F' then they became very sad and upset. Kids... you've been warned. Did you want to listen? No... You thought you would still score a string of A's like your seniors.
5. Why couldn't they even survive the Maths paper? Even if it's PMR, they still wouldn't score for paper 2. They were just too lazy to write the proper Maths working. I could spit out blood teaching them the correct working but only a few would care to follow and listen. Those who listened scored A. The whole entire school and only my boy here scored an A. I know he would get an A because I taught him the old style which I have been brought up with. He would be able to do well even without a calculator. And surprise... surprise... do you know that teenagers need calculator to do addition? Can't they calculate those simple two digit numbers mentally? 1+1=2... they need the calculator to confirm that the answer is correct. I almost fainted when I saw them doing that. They said just to confirm... just to confirm... and when we were in school, we didn't even get to bring the scientific calculator let alone own one. We only used the normal calculator in Form 4. Who created low confidence and incompetent students then?
6. Students want to be fed with answers. You give them homework, ask them to go home and look for the answers from their books and apply what they have studied, they came back with the same question paper without any answers. Reason being, they couldn't understand the question. You don't bluff me with that. I asked which question... did you read the question... the answer came back to me was NO, DIDN'T READ THE QUESTION. Too lazy... Laziness kills. 

So, parents out there. Stop blaming the system. This system is really good. Extremely good to gauge the students' ability to go to Science stream or Arts stream. You think it's really easy to go to Science stream when they couldn't even handle their PT3 science? Now.... there's no one getting A for Science in one particular school, are those getting C and D going to occupy the pure Science classes? If yes, then wait for them to fail in every exam. 

Stop crying over spilled milk. It's time to use thy brain and stop pointing fingers. And some news that reported how well the students' scored, why not report on the number of failures. There's this one school outside my house with 122 students and more than 80 of them literally flunk the Science papers. Again... school lousy? The answer is NO... that school is well-known for having students with lots of disciplinary problems. The teachers sometimes use microphones to scream and yell at those students who created so much problems and headaches to the school. NOT TEACHERS DON'T WANNA TEACH, STUDENTS JUST REFUSE TO LEARN. If you think your child is an angel in school, your child is a good actor or actress. Yo, I didn't say all are like that. Some are really good and obedient, but only a small fraction. I've seen so many types of humans. I start to close both my eyes and just do what I need to do. Parents are just being ridiculous... oh, don't say it's good parenting skills without the cane, my hubby has seen more than I do. The roots of everything do not come from students, but parents.... whose fault now... whose fault now.... 

THIS TIME ROUND, DON'T BLAME THE EDUCATION SYSTEM...