Futile Exercise

I REFER to the letter “Low Morale in Lower Six” published in StarEducation last week, and totally agree with every point the writer had raised.

Of utmost concern, is the time when a school dismisses Lower Six students. According to the writer, his school dismisses students at 3.30pm but those in our school are only allowed to leave at 4.05pm!

This, of course, is the government’s new ruling for those in Form Six. The plan is to memperkasa or “strengthen” sixth formers but as a Lower Six student, I simply cannot see any benefits from such a move.

Firstly, what does the government mean when it talks about the need to upgrade Form Six students?

What I understand from this statement is that the government wants its STPM school leavers to be of substance and quality. Prolonging school hours isn’t the most rational thing to do and I simply believe that it only causes added stress, tiredness, and to some extent anger and disappointment.

In my school, we aren’t allowed to go out of the school compounds to buy lunch, even if it is only across the school junction. Therefore, we have to buy food from the canteen, and eat it there within a certain time frame. This means that students have their meals and snack at the canteen!

And since the canteen usually serves oily and non-nutrituous food, the students are not benefiting at all as it make us feel lethargic.

Secondly, the activities organised by the school to keep students until 4.05pm is not a good idea.

While co-curricular activities make up 10% of our total STPM grades, I strongly believe there must be other alternatives. Some of the activities lined up for us include planning extra-curricular activities for the lower forms.

I do not have much to complain about the planning activities because it acts as a training ground for us to become leaders in the future. However I disagree with activities involving research and development and keeping sports scrapbooks as these activities are a waste of time!

If the education authorities and schools want us trained in writing theses and reports and to present them before an audience, this should NOT be the way! Presentations should either be typed out or written on transparency sheets to be presented on the overhead projector (OHP).

Presentations usually turn out to be “reading classes” because of the lack of guidance from teachers and mentors.

Even students from the country’s leading universities are reading from powerpoint slides, when in fact, they should be presentations. Furthermore, the topics which are “researched and developed” are of no concern to the students’ syllabus.

To me, it is just a waste of our time. Our teachers are also against this system. Thirdly, the time spent in school is way too long! My schedule on schooldays is as follows:

7am - leave for school

4.05pm - to town for lunch

5pm - tuition

7pm - bathe and dinner

8pm - assignments and more assignments

11pm onwards - FATIGUE

This is the life most of us students lead these days. Isn’t it pathetic that as teenagers, we don’t even have the time for socialising and entertainment.

While some some may say that we have the weekends to recover, I must point out that this is not so.

We have to work on our MUET “speaking” test and on group projects. So, with all these time taken, where do we even find time for our own privacy and entertainment?

There will be social breakdowns and relationship troubles!

With the lack of communication between us and our parents and friends, how are we to maintain healthy relationships?

Lastly, what about our academic achievements?

Our main priority is still our studies! Without time to revise, how are we supposed to live our dreams of attaining a 4.0 score?

No, there is no such thing as a miracle, and I believe that hardwork breeds success. However with the time constraints, there is certainly no time for us to study at home!

Even if we do have the time, we would suffer from fatigue.

I don’t think a person who doesn’t have any “A’s” but who has good co-curricular achievements will be selected to enter a local university over a student who has four distinctions, but without any co-curricular achievements.

These days, there are hardly any students without co-curricular achievements since many of them are members of at least one society or club in the school.

They are awarded marks for their involvement, though they may not be much.

I will certainly not put in much effort in completing assignments for research and development projects at the expense of neglecting my school work and assignments.

My hope is that the government will do away with the new dismissal time and let us leave school at 1.25pm.

*to all my beloved respected authorities, i think you can stop the search on who wrote this article here.*