The one about the end of the O level exams

As i am writing this very moment, there will be students counting down the hours to the end of the O Levels. By 3 pm tomorrow, all of the IJ sec 4 will be free!

in fact it seems like yesterday when we started 2005, when the teachers like myself were worried that whether the students will be up to the task. There is always the comparision with the "last year batch" , and how this present lot will better them. Remedials, tons of worksheets, lectures, tests, retests, re-re-tests, scoldings, desperation, despair, frustration... all this were part and parcel of a sec 4 teacher, synonymous to the sec 4 cohort. I think they will be glad to put all these behind them now...

However, this also mean the end of a chapter in IJ for them. The empty classrooms, the corridors devoid of the usual bustle and hustle. And realising that there is only the sec 4s to share that feeling of leaving behind the 4 or 10 years of convent school life to chart new directions ahead.

I am ambivalent about this last few hours of the end of the O levels. My responsibilities officially ended on 24 November 2005, after the grad night. This is when I am no longer 4/4 2005 form teacher, and a sec 4 additional maths teacher or even a sec 4 social studies / history teacher. It is when I await a new chapter to begin. The future is uncertain...