Term 3 Week 2

This week is the start of the N level oral exams for the NT students. It’s a time language teachers dread as they have to toil every afternoon to examine candidates. Myself not spared, I have to drag my feet to a nearby secondary school to perform my teacher-ly duties
Yes on one hand it serves to once again sharpen my tools for examining / teaching students oral skills, on the other, I wonder if more provision can be made to make the job less dreadful for the countless of language teachers across the island. On Tue, I only finished lesson at 1330 but had to arrive at the school by 1415. It is an almost impossible task since any teacher knows the ring of the bell is not indicative of the time you step out of the classroom. Eventually I only got to leave school at 1345 and reached the school past 1415. I was late but not due to my doings. I later found out from other colleagues that the official release time from classes (for teachers across all schools) was only 1330. How is the teacher/examiner expected to be able to perform at optimum when there is so little provision made? Let’s not even talk about a time to breathe, less a decent lunch. My fellow examiner survives on morsels of biscuits few minutes before the start of the exams at 1430. Life of a teacher.
Well, that aside, during this week of meeting various candidates, the private candidates were the ones who left the deepest impressions in me. The private candidates were people from various walks of life. Yes, a bulk were those from the beng-lian clan who finally decided they had enough of taking orders behind the Macdonalds counter. Then there were a couple of China nationals who were ordered by their employers to get their English standards right. I must say I was impressed with them. Despite their jerky attempts at expressing themselves, they were mostly clear and understood. We highlighted what they could do rather than what they couldn’t and decided they at least deserved to pass. Then there was this lady who looked as old as my mom, sat waiting for her turn. She seemed to have a lot on her mind. I did not even know why she wanted to sit for an English exam at this age. When it was her turn, like all other candidates, she greeted us before taking her seat. It was weird having someone as old as your mom greeting you like this. She read but with some amount of difficulty. Still she managed to finish it decently. During the conversation, I found out she was even taking night classes to improve herself. I didn’t manage to find out why she decided to take an exam at this age.
But what I figured out at the end was that she had a love for learning and bettering herself. It’s something that many youngsters lack. Perhaps she didn’t have the oppurtunity to do so in her younger days and is not making up for lost time. Such are the people many can learn from, myself included.