April 30, 2009

• Invigilation of Open Examination

  Being a centre supervisor is sometimes challenging. At least, there are many administrative and logistic chores I have to finish. But invigilation is something different. If I am asked to be the invigilation for a 3-hour examination session, I will be bored to death.

  An outside invigilator, let’s call him John Doe, came to our school yesterday. He was 20 something and was a teacher of BeaXXX College (a.k.a. XXXcon College). The invigilation duty was heavy yesterday. There were two sessions of examination, 3 hours each. In the first session, Mr Doe suddenly came onto the backstage without notifying me. As the centre supervisor, I was working on the candidates’ attendance and the arrangement of the pouches for the answerscripts on the stage. I thought he was going to check some personal belongings. Five minutes passed. I put the focus away from my work to check what he was up to. HE WAS READING NEWSPAPER! What? While all the other invigilators were performing their duties, Mr Doe left his post and read newspaper. I jotted down the time he started reading. My tolerance was 15 minutes. I started counting.

  One minute after another passed. Before the end of my 15 minutes of tolerance, Mr Doe put down his newspaper and resumed his invigilation duties in the hall. But this was not the end of the story.

  In the second session, Mr Doe suddenly came onto the backstage again in the middle of the examination. I wondered whether he needed to finish his morning newspaper. Out of my expectation, Mr Doe buried his face in the desk. HE PLANNED TO TAKE A NAP! I was stunned. Once again, I jotted down the time he started taking the nap. After 15 minutes, I went over and knocked on his desk.

  “Are you sick, Mr Doe?”

  “Yes, I ate something at lunch.”

  “Well, invigilation is difficult. But reading newspaper and sleeping during invigilation are two unquestionably inappropriate activities. You have slept for 20 minutes. I think it is time you go out and resume your invigilation duties.” Mr Doe stood up and went back to the hall.

  What kind of teacher is this Mr Doe? I do not dare to think. Professionalism should include the resilience to uneasy working condition and boredom. At least we can show minimum respect to WHAT we are.

  • 4:50 am
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