A Premonition..

I had a premonition that something bad was going to happen when I received my invigilation schedule a few weeks back. The class that I was going to invigilate was notorious. Having sat in for their lessons, I knew that this class was not easy to handle. In fact, just the thought of having to relief or teach that class gives me nightmares.

During their exams this morning, I caught two students, a Malay boy (M) and a Chinese boy (C), cheating right under my nose. While I was attending to another boy, M and C thought I was oblivious to the situation. C passed something to M. When I confronted the receiver, M, he was in constant denial. I almost engaged in a shouting match with him, but I decided that it would just put me at the losing end and would also distract the other students who were concentrating hard on their exam. I knew that just soley based on my words and what I saw, he could go on denying and saying that my eyes were playing tricks on me even though his claims were totally ridiculous. Instead, I looked for concrete evidence and found them first on C, and then on M. C knew that he was doomed the moment I asked to see his answer script. I didn't bother confronting him, neither did he make any attempt to plead his innocence. M was the troublemaker. He even had the audacity to ask me back for the 'cheating item' and told me not to stand next to him as I was distracting him. That was the final straw. I reported the incident to the HODs and the students' parents were informed. Both of them would be getting zero marks for that paper.

That was not the end to the matter. C admitted to cheating within five minutes but M finally admitted to playing a part only after close to 5 hours of interrogation and after probably realising that I had evidence against him. Or perhaps he decided to confess after going for his prayers.

I sincerely hope this incident would have taught C a valuable lesson: to choose his friends wisely. When asked why he was willing to help M, he answered that M was his best friend. Ya, some sort of best friend he had. His best friend left him in the lurch when trouble came. His best friend claimed that he had no part in the cheating scam even though they had planned to do so before the exam started. His best friend treated him like a dumb fool. His best friend only bothered about himself without giving a hoots about his friend who actually 'assisted' him in his exam.

The attitude of M is totally shocking. I've never expected a 14-year-old to be so bold. Denying his misdeed is bad enough. What so appalling was him asking for the cheating item back and wanting to copy down his friend's answers right in front of me. That's not all. When the HODs questioned him, he acted as if he was innocent and that I was picking on him. I've only done relief teaching for his class once. I do not even know his name. Why in the world would I want to frame him?

M certainly didn't know who he was dealing with here. He thought that being inexperienced, I would be distracted by another student. and that I would be totally engrossed with helping that student till I won't be aware of my surroundings. He didn't expected me to be a police cum detective. I was watching closely over him since the first minute of the exam. Whatever it is, having evidence to prove his guilt was much more important than what I witnessed. This is especially so when their over-protective parents come into the picture.

I don't really give a damn if these students don't respect me. I want them to get the message across that I may be new in this line but I'm not one to be trifled with.

As for next week, I'll be driving the decade old car. My heart will ache badly should my favourite car suffer any scratches.