A stupid thing, and hopefully a lesson learnt

On Friday, 13 February, Kai's Chinese HOD called me to inform me about a case of leakage of WA questions/answers from the Wednesday batch to the Thursday batch.

Someone in the Thursday batch said Kai was involved. So she approached Kai on Friday morning to ask for a written statement on the matter. Kai wrote a note admitting that he gave the questions and answers to his friend S who was in the Thursday batch. She told me she was surprised at his honesty. But I said honesty had nothing to do with leaking the answers *.*

Anyway, she said many students were involved and the school would conduct its investigation before updating me on the consequences.

We asked Kai about it when he reached home. He told only S who didn't give him away. But Kai heard that another boy mentioned his name somehow. Ah well, he did it so let's just wait for sentencing...

Yesterday, the teacher in charge of exams matter called me to follow up on this. Kai would get (a) zero for that Chinese WA, and (b) a "fair" conduct grade possibly for the year rather than the semester. There were other cases outside of the Kai-S loop and those students would also get zero. Kai also learnt about this yesterday, and had to write a reflection letter.

When he came home, he told us he got 24/30 for his Chinese WA, top in class tied with this boy whom he thought was a good kid. But it would be reflected as zero. He also said some boys got off with a warning. We think teachers probably didn't have evidence that they were involved. Unlike my kid and his friend who had traceable evidence on the school laptop and Google account - he told us yesterday that he and S wrote the answers in a Google doc...!!!! Really 🤦‍♀️ 

Actually, we were not harsh on him when we first knew about it last month. Only told him to not do such things anymore. Why? This kind of thing has been happening since forever. I remember people sharing "tips" in secondary school. I found it unfair that my classmates who often didn't do as well as me, got tips to score better; whether they really did score better with the tips was not important. But in the first place, why do such tests take place on different days?? There would naturally be big mouths or pressure to share when a friend asked.

I asked Kel. He said something to the effect of not disrupting timetable by taking a week out for WA, leaving it to the integrity of students and taking the chance to correct kids if anyone should cheat. I feel like it's setting the kids up.. Or, some kids. Like mine. Who "helped" a friend. Who in the end still did badly though he passed; he failed Chinese last year.

Fine, I think Kai really needs to learn. No better time to learn than when he's still a kid.

But when we heard about the Google doc, Sito really scolded him - for being stupid on top of doing something wrong that did not benefit him or his intended beneficiary.

We accepted the consequence meted out by the school without contest since Kai really did something wrong. Rather he learn this lesson now than later. This is only Sec 2 and for internal exams, and the penalties are, in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential. 

But for a kid in school, these penalties are painful. And the zero was even more painful coz he scored so well. Also, with that conduct grade, he would not be able to get an Edusave award even if he continues to do well like last year. He likes his money :p

So yes, very painful. We really hope he would remember this pain and the lesson, and know what to do and what not to do in future.

Anyway, we made it clear that he should not give - or receive - answers. He has already proven to himself that he can do well all on his own merit. If this happens again, we would not be so kind. And of course, no stupid business, please!

We also shared this with the brothers with his knowledge. We can learn from each other's mistakes. This is called 前车之鉴。