Does anyone - students, parents or teachers - think it a good idea to move the SPM examination dates forward such that they would end by the last or 2nd last week of November? And all the other normal year-end school syllabus n exams should end by end of October? *

I do realize that by advocating this I could be hit on the head by those parents who do not want to look after their kids or find it very stressful to spend time with them, thereby looking for holiday tuition programs for them, forgetting that in our time, we never went tuition during the holidays.*

Instead, we spend our time either helping out with chores at home or helping our parents if they run a business in the shops. That's how we learn life's skills n bond with our family. We played outdoors with neighborhood kids, had a healthy dose of sun and stayed fit. We interacted with real people n built real-life relationships. We also attended brownie or girl guides / scouts activities, learnt typing n shorthand, tailoring or cooking/baking hands-on at home.

There was no Internet or computer game to entertain us then so the chance of becoming a couch potato was much less n interacting online was unheard of.

Today's kids have shorter holiday time n during this brief period, instead of bonding with them n teaching them skills, some parents send them to more academic oriented tuitions. Outside of this forced programs they bury their faces in the latest techtoys. In short, we r in danger of raising kids who lack life's basic skills n do not know how to communicate with real people n who fail to bond with their family.

Is it any wonder that relationships fail n we produce a workforce of white-collar workers inept at basic skills n basic communication?

As a parent I would like a longer holiday time at the end of the academic year so I can spend more time with the children n to teach them our family, social n religious values as well as basic skills.

For the SPM school leavers who are unsure what to do with their future, a longer holiday time would allow them to take up short courses or work part time or both. These would allow them to explore the possible career or further studies options in their future. For instance a short programming course might reveal or develop one's interest in IT with the aim of pursuing it further or a cookery course might stir up one's interest in the area as a career option. Infact, both IT n cooking skills are needed if one were to leave nest, be it for further studies or into the workforce. Most tertiary instituitions now require one to be IT savvy to post assignments online. Many corporate establishments too require some basic IT skills.

This is also a time to fit in a youth camp that imparts one's religious values n a crucial time for parent-child talk before they leave the nest for further tertiary education or to start work.*

With such a short holiday time at the end of the year n many tertiary instituition commencing their academic year in Jan or Feb, there is hardly room for the abovementioned to prepare them for leaving the nest*

Teachers also need a longer holiday time to rest from the mental stress, to spend time with their family n to take short courses in an attempt to refresh themselves in the various fields. Learning after all is ongoing n teachers too need to update themselves to be better equipped to teach the leaders of tomorrow.*