“Student, refused one mark more by Teacher, plunges to death,” I read out loud
to my sister. “Why would a student even do that?” “Aiyo, what time already? Still
reading newspaper! You want to be late for work is it?” My sister reminded me.
Panicking, I stuffed the last sandwich into my mouth, took my bag of worksheets
and headed for school. I am an English teacher in Cambridge Secondary. I went to
school and as per normal, I walked into the school. But this time, everyone looked at
me and seems to be gossiping about me. I had a strange feeling, but did not pay much
attention to it as I thought it was just another childish rumour.
However, when I reached my desk in the staffroom, Miss Kang, a mathematics
teacher came up to me and told me a shocking an horrifying news. “Did you read the
newspaper today?” She asked. “Yeah, why?” I replied as I took out my books for
lessons. “The student that plunged to death just because the teacher refused to give her
one mark… It’s Adeline. One of your students, Adeline Ng Ai Choo. And that teacher is
you. She died because you refused to give her a mark to pass…” I was so stunned that I ignored Miss Kang totally.
I reflected thoroughly and thought whether it was my fault that Adeline committed
suicide but I figured out that it was not my fault as it cannot be a practice of teachers to
give additional marks, even if it was only one mark, to enable a student to pass, as it
makes examinations a farce. It was deeply regretted that Adeline would resort to such a
drastic action. But I felt commiserate for Adeline as she was a very smart and
responsible student. Only if she was not so silly to take her life, she would have gotten a
much better score for the following examinations.
I think that a student should not be so silly to take his or her own life just because of a
test. We should all treasure life and study hard and not blame teachers for...