Foul!

As published in Malay Mail today. KUALA LUMPUR — Teachers, students, parents, tutors and even Examination Syndicate personnel could face stiff penalties under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972 following the leak of the UPSR Science paper scheduled for today. Police said at least one report was lodged in Putrajaya and were verifying if more reports were lodged in other states following the fiasco involving Year 6 pupils nationwide. “We will investigate the matter under OSA,” said Bukit Aman assistant chief of Inspector-General of Police secretariat ACP Datin Asmawati Ahmad. “Please give us time to verify the details and investigate this thoroughly.” While preliminary investigations by the Education Syndicate revealed the 018, 028 and 038 papers were circulated over social media, it is learnt questions and answers for other papers were also circulated through instant messaging WhatsApp. There were also claims the primary school students had also obtained answe...

HARESH SAYS, as published in Malay Mail today. TEACHERS in the country are a confused lot. But I pity them for they have been placed in a very confusing situation. I spent several hours with a group of teachers on Monday as they spoke about “clerical work”, waking up at 3am to submit data online and the PT3 which started yesterday. Here is a gist of our conversation. The school teachers I spoke to teach in three different schools in Kuala Lumpur. Their real names cannot be revealed for obvious reasons. Haresh Deol (HD): How’s the education scene? Abu: Messy! Lim: Concentrate on my tuition centre better Muthu: Saya menurut perintah. HD: According to the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013, Malaysian teachers spend an average of 29 per cent on administrative tasks. What’s that all about? Abu: Much have changed since we left school. Now there’s E-Operasi, E-Pangkat, E-this, E-that… Lim: Fed up lah. Muthu: Let me explain. E-Operasi is ...