THE 2016 ‘O’ Level results were unexpected. When the results of 20 government schools declined, it indicated that something went terribly wrong last year.

Never in my knowledge had there been such a decline.

Students’ hearts were broken and futures ruined. As a 2016 ‘O’ Level teacher myself I admit that I was one of the many teachers responsible for the decline. But I have my reasons.

Let’s analyse what was different last year from the previous years – 30 periods for teachers, Brunei Teachers’ Standards (BTS), standardised tests, stressful Teacher Performance Appraisal (TPA) observations.

In plain terms, the new programmes introduced – the worst being the enforced new method of teaching – discussion in groups, asking students to make their own notes and presentations.

The end result? Students learnt nothing, topics could not be covered, and I could not do anything about it.

In my opinion, the students’ 2016 ‘O’ Level results proved the whole new system was a complete failure.

I do not teach in an elite school. When asked to discuss in groups, my students talk about relationships; when asked to do notes, they don’t, or they come up with copied work straight from their textbooks; when asked to present something, they waste time arguing whose turn it is and finally present work copied and pasted straight from the Internet and I can assure you no one benefits from all these.

Teachers must be trusted to teach in the way they think benefits students. If I recall correctly, when SPN 21 (The National Education System for the 21st Century) was introduced, we were told that there should be no assessment or tests. Now all we have are several time-wasting standardised tests, full of mistakes both in the question paper itself and in the marking scheme. Meetings to decide on the type of questions were held frequently forcing us to cancel our scheduled extra classes. No wonder we couldn’t finish the topics. How could we test students on a topic they haven’t learnt? The papers had to be marked at breakneck speed and the marks were sent to the Ministry of Education (MoE) almost immediately.

What was the purpose of this? Were they able to help the students by knowing the standardised test marks? All they did at the MoE was waste paper and ink printing analysis of schools. Then there was data analysis which is another absolute waste of time. We had to key in online if each student had got each question right or wrong. Imagine the amount of time it takes for teachers doing it for each of their 100 students.

So what was the solution? We asked each student to look at their own paper and give us the required data. This took one week’s lesson time. What was the purpose of all these data?

In my opinion, officials from the MoE made teachers and students waste valuable lesson time. Where is the data now? In the dustbin? When teachers mark students’ papers, they can immediately identify the area of weakness of their students.

Teachers are overworked in schools – not with their teaching duties but rather administrative duties, so much so that their teaching has been affected.

I am a member of the school registration team and my entire school time is spent doing registration work for the Integrated National Education Information System (iNEIS). It was introduced with the aim of making all information accessible.

But has it worked? No. Ask any teacher.

Paperwork still has to be done. The wireless system is often down and it takes ages to key in a single student’s details and attendance. We also need the cooperation of the form teachers, which is very difficult. I spend most of my time begging form teachers for their daily and monthly attendance, which has made me unpopular.

My principal and deputy principals do not care what pains I have to go through to get the required data. All they care about is that the work gets done on time and if it doesn’t we get blamed as if the delay was our own fault.

What is worse is that the officers from the cluster unit demand all sorts of information within a span of less than 24 hours. They have all in the information in front of them yet they are lazy to dig them up.

Do these cluster officers have classes to teach? No they don’t.

Is it possible to have a rule that before any information or data is requested from individual schools, permission is first sought from the top officers from the MoE through an official memo and that sufficient time is given to schools to respond? I am certain then there would be no such requests. Is it also possible to hand over all the iNEIS data-entering work to cluster officers? Let each one be posted in schools for this or better still, scrap the whole thing.

My husband often says that I am married to the school. My children prefer their maid over me. My Fridays and Sundays are spent completing school administrative work. Twice I had to reschedule my children’s paediatric appointments due to iNEIS briefings. I am now on the verge of a mental breakdown. It wasn’t like this before. I used to enjoy being a teacher.

Many times I have broken down and cried my heart out in the silence of my own room. I feel that life is unfair. I am unable to bear the stress of being a teacher/registration officer/beggar of information/data entry clerk.

I have failed miserably as a teacher, a wife and a mother all because I am a teacher/registration officer in a government school.

I am sure there are several teachers reading this letter who may feel the same way.

I sincerely hope the MoE would look into this.

– Stressed Beyond Limits, BSB