Exam fever....

A fever hit Brunei the last few days. But no need to worry, no need to report to the WHO or the health authorities. No health screening, no scary injections required. It was just the exam fever ....

Over the last few days, over a thousand Government officers sat for the compulsory if you want to be promoted exams. The subjects should not be something new, strange or even alien to the officers. It should be basic knowledge for the officers to be a government servant. After all, to do your job you must know what are your responsibilities, your authority, what you can do and cannot do... all the basic rules and regulations. General Orders better known as GO and Financial Regulations known as FR are these. So should be peanuts to all of them.

Is it really kacang? No, many will say. Yes, some will say as in any other tests or exams. To most government officers, taking the exams is to get promoted. It is true, for those who fail, the chance of being promoted are slim (I do not believe it is nil as many does). May be this is where the fault is. Learning something just for the sake of passing the exams ( I have plenty of experience in this). It is nothing compared to learning something to be a good civil servant. We will end up with the situation of “masuk telinga kiri, keluar telinga kanan”, not much difference in the level of knowledge before and after the exam (during the exams, off course it is high). Surely there are those with the right attitude, learning the GO & FR so they will be better civil servants. May be, I do hope, the numbers for this group is increasing. (may be we can do on the spot surprise tests he he he) Realising that we need to know, understand, get a feeling, appreciate these rules in order to be a good civil servant must be the ultimate goal... not just to get promotion.....

Talking about exams, in the news yesterday, some cheats were caught using concealed electronic devices (transmitters) in university entrance exams in China. Most people know you can get cheap electronic gadgets in China, I am sure these people have easy access to these devices. I wonder if this will catch on here as more and more careers relied on them passing the exams. The market is there. Over one thousand people sitting for the exams. Wherever there is a market, I am sure there will be ready suppliers. May be some are already writing up their business plans for this. May be the day will come where thorough checks will have to be made on all the candidates. I do hope NOT....

As I have said before in my earlier entries, trust is very important. Even more so in being a civil servant. We trust, all our civil servants are trustworthy and will not resort to what they are up to in the Chinese university entrance exams...... Good luck guys....


PS:
I wonder if there any tuition classes opened for the GO & FR exams? Any online help available? Very good business opportunities but do not forget to apply for permission to set up a business .....