Monday, June 11, 2007

Excuse me, what investigation is this????

I sent an email to the feedback unit of MOE, asking them to clarify "Can a foreign student who has only grade 5 standard be admitted to Secondary 1 Express?"

Mrs Komathi Suppiah, Head Admission/Operations, School Placement & Scholarship Branch of MOE replied the next day, "Hi, in order for us to investigate the matter, cld you let us know the name of the foreign student?" I gave her Kimberly's particulars.

On 8th February 2003, my husband and I were in Bangkok on a business trip. On 10th Februay around 4pm, my hubby received a call from Andy. He sounded flustered and told hubby, the principal, Mrs Yap-Chou Weng Ha and vice-principal Mrs Kong of Bedok North Secondary School sent for Kimberly 4 times, to ask her if she had completed Grade 6. The parents were told to go to the school the next day. The parents were expecting bad news. Andy told my hubby that I had to call the school to explain as I was the 'source of the complaint'. I didn't.

I was supposed to return on 12th February but I came back a day earleir. When I checked my emails that day, I found a reply by Komathi on 10th February that read :

"We have investigated and note that the Highest Educational Level completed by Kimberly is grade 6 and not grade 5. She can be admitted to Secondary 1 as she is within permissible age and has passed the school placement test for secondary one admission."

Another email on 11th February read,

"Just to let you know that the school has reconfirmed that the child has completed only grade 5. We will follow up with the school accordingly."

Ridiculous!!! What sort of investigation took place???? What a joke!

What is the penalty for giving false information or lying to a civil servant? A fine or Jail. What's the penalty if a civil servant lies? I'm curious to find out.

37 comments:

  1. So after the 'investigations' , what follow up did they do with the school?..what happened after that?..

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  2. eve,
    Sabar. The story will unfold as I post daily. hehehe...

    Warning : Could take weeks or months to know the ending. Will the heroine die in the end?

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  3. I am only putting up my guess...

    If they feel that they can buy their way through, I am sure it is easy for her parents to buy a Grade 6 certificate and as we all know, our civil servants can be rather dumb and take it black and white literally. I'm only guessing, since bribery in their country is a common thing. What's so difficult about it? And furthermore, it is unlikely that MOE will go that far to investigate in Phil.

    Thinking officers? Yea, I was encouraged with that - but when I start to think, I was told "just follow orders".

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  4. Ed,
    Yes, it's true. They can buy a certificate easily. Not many Ministry in Singapore is willing to go far to investigate these foreigners lah!

    hahaha... Just follow orders.

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  5. Weeks or months to know ending???

    You got DVD edition of your dramas I can buy from KL so that I can sit down and watch one shot? Must be clear one hor, not those recorded off the TV complete with advertisements ones!

    With regards to my earlier comment, Special Stream is not GEP lah. Just that I could take Chinese as 1st lang. So I'm still appropriately 小才小用.

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  6. Ai yo! Suspense!!! Hope Heroine wont die lah. Let the Civil Servants die lah! :p

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  7. miss loi,
    I also dun know what the ending is like? How to make into DVD? I ask Jack Neo if he interested. hehehe....

    Whether big 材 or small 材, still is 材!

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  8. Waahhhh! wokking mum,
    Over engrossed in my drama liao. Careful. Walls got ears.

    You still have 哥哥 and 妹妹 to take care of hor.

    *Hugs*

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  9. thx u for my blog repost and 我想問的是Technoratl 這個網站是在做什麼的 ps I had sing up

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  10. secret magic square,
    Technorati是一个著名的博客搜索引擎,截止2007年5月,Technorati已经索引了超过8千5百万个博客站点。可以说,Technorati已经成为世界上最重要的一个Blog搜索引擎。

    Technorati在2006年西南西音乐节(SXSW)中获得技术最高分奖(Technical Achievement)和最佳宠爱奖(Best of Show)。

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  11. Mmmm... i also want to know what is the penalty for giving false information..

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  12. DVD edition? Wah... got extended version? Director cut?

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  13. chen,
    Curious hor. We ordinary citizens know what to expect if we do wrong. The civil servants have no such fear, I think. So much monkey business around. tsk tsk tsk ......

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  14. dk,
    erm... you want to help me with that? We start with a trailer first. :)

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  15. Guess it works ONE way (their way) for them and not the others.

    After that email, any calls from them to you?

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  16. Well, the only explanation I could think of regarding those two e-mails: human error! As an admin person myself, although I try very hard not to make mistake, I would still make one of two here there. However, I really think that Andy is a very cheeky person. I really don't like people to pretend that they are innocent while they are not. EVIL!

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  17. paddy,
    It's always their way wat. Black also them, white also them. What can we say?

    Surprisingly, NOBODY contacted me even though I shoot all the way to the Top! It's all ding-donging emails and just 2 letters. Read my coming posts. :)

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  18. wind,
    It is definitely not human error! I have proof.

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  19. This is getting interesting. Waiting for next post...

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  20. king's wife,
    Oh yes, it is getting to be really interesting. More characters will be introduced and more twists and turns.

    Grab your popcorn and take a seat please.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm in for another movie / drama by Aunty ECL... =)

    ReplyDelete
  22. colourful world,
    Hope your world doesn't turn gray after this. hahaha....

    Take a seat. :)

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  23. Do civil servants get fined? I've never heard of it, not in M'sia anyway. And how did you prove that it wasn't human error?

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  24. rinnah,
    Probably not many would be fined, and the public would never know.

    Read my next posts for answers. :)

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  25. I shall read on for the story to unfold.

    I want the ECL heroine to triumph! Hope that will be the case in reality.

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  26. Eastcoastlife,
    This is a fascinating read! What an amazing story...now I know what you meant by how much we have in common! Holyfreakingjeesuppeets! It's so good to know that the educational system is challenging in other places other than the US.

    Wow...I love reading this story. WOW..WOW...WOW IS ALL I CAN SAY!!!!!

    KEEP WRITING THIS STORY...IF ONLY FOR ME...

    I applaud you darling...I applaud you...I still get so upset that I can't write about it..because I want to beat the crap out of people!!! OH....YOU ARE AMAZING DEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  27. oceanskies,
    I hope I will triumph too. There're too many glaring errors.

    Well, if I don't, good luck to the rest of my fellow Singaporeans and their future generations. :)

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  28. Hahaha.... one wacky mom.
    Yes, we have so much in common. We stand up for our rights. We don't tolerate cowardly behaviour, ignorance and pacificism. We are not wimps!

    Thank you for your support.

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  29. they reconfirmed with the scul and found out the girl has completed Grade 5. then they 'investigated' and found it's Grad 6. How can that be? Since the scul oredy stated she's completed only Grade 5! How on Earth did the Grade 6 information came out? Sounds so fishy here...

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  30. kyh,
    They never checked documents. They never really investigated. They simply replied me based on their questioning of the girl. That's efficiency and professionalism for them? hahaha.....

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  31. Well, for those who are curious abt our law, you can browse thru:

    http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/

    Btw, why not suggest that MOE ask the girl in question to take some form of examination or something to assess her level of proficiency (if they are really serious abt this investigation.

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  32. Someone needs to investigate the investigators.

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  33. Thank you lusciousdelight.

    The girl didn't even complete her primary education, so she was not eligible for secondary 1.

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  34. Civil servants make mistakes. Not lying. Only the public lies. And of course they can be fined.

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  35. Simple American,
    Yes, that's what they say. They made a mistake. I lied. Nothing happened to them.

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  36. Hey, I stumbled onto your blog and postings abt this issue.

    Mind if I like you up together with those juicy posts?

    ReplyDelete