A Primary 1 pupil's answer to an English composition assignment has
sparked a lively online debate, after a photo of it was shared
widely on social media.
The girl's mother, tech start-up vice-president and Democratic
People's Party member Nadine Yap, had posted the photo of the
corrected answer with the caption, "Scratching my head," on
herFacebook page
on Tuesday (Oct 6) morning.
It has since been shared over 500 times, attracting more than a
hundred comments from netizens.
Ms Yap's daughter Zoe, who goes to Methodist Girls' School,
appeared to have written a model answer to the question, and Ms Yap
was puzzled over the corrections that Zoe's teacher had made on
it.
The question was a stimulus-based conversation consisting of three
parts. Part C asked:
"If you are celebrating a family member's birthday, how do you plan
to celebrate it?"
Zoe's answer was: "If I were to plan a birthday, I would plan it
for my mother. Instead of a cake I would make cupcakes."
The teacher corrected the answer to read: "If I am to plan a
birthday, I will plan it for my mother. Instead of getting a cake,
I will make cupcakes."
Majority of the netizens who shared and responded to the post saw
nothing wrong with Zoe's answer and questioned the teacher's need
to correct her grammar.
Several speculated that the teacher may have corrected the answer
because the question was posed in the present tense; others took
issue with the way the question had been phrased.
Some netizens initially thought that the figure "1/10" written in
red at the bottom right of the answer indicated that Zoe had been
given a low score of one out of 10, and proceeded to criticise the
teacher.
But it was actually the date - Oct 1.
Ms Yap, 46, later clarified in comments made on her original post
that she had no intention to shame the teacher, and had wanted to
gather input from her friends as she was not an expert.
"I'll talk to Zoe about it and see if she wants to address it with
the teacher herself. I will also quietly have a word/e-mail with
the teacher and perhaps other relevant folks," she wrote.
source