I have to invigilate the SPM exam (O level). In the school that I am invigilating now has two centres. The centre that I am invigilating is for students from the arts stream. There are nine exam rooms. Each room consists of 25 candidates.

I was extremely disappointed with the students' behavior. Although this is a very important exam, the candidates were not serious about it. They have no sense of urgency. They entered the room late, chatting even while the exam was going on or during the exam, sucking sweets or chewing gum. They left the exam room very early. Some candidates may ask how much time was allocated for the paper. No matter what the answer was, they told me they would walk out within 10 minutes. They were about 40% of these types of candidates. They were not bothered with this important exam which, if they do well will give them a head start in life; what more during normal school days? It might be worse.

I wonder if this is all they have achieved after spending 11 or 12 years in school? Most of the answer papers that I had collected were blank.

All this while, the Ministry of Education was only concerned about how many A's the candidates would score. How about this group of students? If they do not change their attitude, they would face problems in future.

I am concerned that if these students were not properly counselled; they would not know how to tap into their own potentials to become responsible citizens.