Once again our children are facing their Matsec exams and once again I strongly feel that they are being let down by the system. An exam to test their aptitude has again been a means to destroy their motivation and self-esteem. I am not even going to get into what the dedicated teachers must be feeling.
The dreaded Maths exams have come and been and as usual the questions set were too difficult for the level the students were sitting. New material pops up out of nowhere and apart from tackling these, they are under duress because there is a time limit.
My child sat for the mathematics ‘A’ level paper and being her favourite subject, she was well prepared for it and had studied really hard... but she came out crying because she had never done certain questions and there was too little time for her to finish the whole paper. She also told me that other students gave up and left the exam room after only an hour, saying they would not bother to turn up for Paper II the following day.
This in fact turned out to be even worse than the first paper. They entered the exam room already worried about what it would be like. Here, I am only talking about the maths papers however; there are other subjects where the same thing applies.
I can also speak from another perspective, not that of a mother but of a Learning Support Assistant. I have only worked as an LSA for a few months but in this short period of time I have come to respect students with additional needs and their parents who painstakingly achieve goal after goal. The students manage to sit for the exams notwithstanding the various difficulties and barriers they overcome. Together we do our utmost to empower these students and teach them to believe in themselves, only to have it slammed back in our faces when after putting so much effort into it they are faced with this type of exam. Is this the inclusion we are taught about?
When I phoned the person concerned in the past, he told me that the exam wasn’t difficult and that I was the only person phoning in to complain. But he also said that even if it had been hard, the marking schemes would be adjusted accordingly.
Results haven’t yet come out... but whether the students pass or fail, the system needs to change if we want more of them to pursue further education and to love the subjects they study with a sense of wonder rather than seeing them as a tool of terror.
What I would really like answered from the authorities concerned is why they are doing this and what are they hoping to achieve. Maybe, just maybe, I may finally understand.