The sophomore sat in her stylishly altered school uniform-short skirt, ankle socks and a shirt several sizes too big to show off her fabulous figure. She pulled her pink shoulder bag to her chest, and crossed her legs elegantly. "Should I skip school tomorrow? There's so much to study for, and, you know, I did that last year too!" Her friends laughed, and one wearing nail polish and a snobbish expression on her face leaned forward, agreement written on her face. "Let's do that, and get As in our exam."

What is it with students these days? Today, when I walked into class, I was momentarily stunned. At least a third of my classroom was empty! Later, when the teacher keyed in the attendance for the day, and I saw the reasons they had given for being absent, I was shocked. One read ,'giddy'. Another stated simply 'sick', while many others claimed they had 'headaches'. One does not have to be a CIA agent to see through their feeble excuses.

Pray tell me, what sort of attitude is this? Or rather, what sort of level have students of Singapore stooped to, if they wish to play truant for the sake of getting good grades in their exams?

While I am aware that this is the streaming year for Secondary 2s, this does not mean they can play truant just to study! There is a difference between being diligient and overreacting. And to think that our form teacher actually told us she expected a large number of us to skip school for the next three days to study! If my form teacher expects it to happen, my god, it must be a pretty common thing, musn't it?

I don't know, but the way I see it, a good student is one who does not skip school for the sake of studying, and also does well for the exams, or fairly well. And why? This is because those who skip school to study are simply stating that they have very bad time management! So bad, in fact, that they must skip school in the days leading up to the exams to study!

What's worse is that many actually see it as a very common thing to do, to skip school in order to study. But, that isn't the sole point of school, is it? There are other things in school as well. Don't tell me you go to school for the sake of learning only? School is a place of friendship as well, a place of learning, yes, but also a place of encouragement and where friendships formed may last a lifetime. I didn't think Singaporean students to be as superficial as that, to come to school just to pass their exams. Or maybe I was wrong, maybe Singaporeans do care about their grades too much, to the extent that they actually skip school to study.

The irony of that statment is leaving me in stitches. School is a place of learning, yet students in Singapore are skipping school (an institute of learning)in order to stay home and study!

And what happens when they grow up? In the working world, one cannot ask the employer to give them a few days to finish one project before they are given another! That is a dream. In the working world, they will have to field many projects and handle many meetings as well as a social life all at the same time! In life, one cannot ask people to keep waiting for them.

And I don't understand why these people do such things. Isn't there some other draw of school apart from learning enough to get good grades for their exams? I didn't think they would be so desperate as to skip school.

Although they're supposedly good students, doesn't their skipping of school to study only show how desperate they are?

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