So the ministry finally responded to my email of 6 March. Actually wasn't expecting them to but they did & the reply was...umm can't find a word for it. My lingerie is more interesting lol. Opened a pandora's box in my opinion.

I have no idea why they replied that my appeal has been rejected. In my last email I didn't ask for re-consideration or re-appeal. I stated quite clearly that son will take his CL exams. We had already accepted the earlier rejection. Maybe should have done in caps, bold & 30 pts font.

They brought up the point that the officer met with Ryan & the teachers & what happened etc. Errr hello...anyone home ? I was there at the meeting. I know what happened. I said so in the same email.

Then they mentioned the "criteria" for exemption again. That would be the 4th or 5th time. Seems like a pathological fixation with the "criteria".

There seems to be a problem comprehending/processing (or lack of ?) the contents of my mail. Had the response been different, I would not have been agitated.

If I were in their position, I would have replied :

Thank you for your email of 6 March to ---. We are so sorry that we have been unable to assist with the exemption as Ryan, unfortunately, does not qualify. We do thank you for your understanding and kind acceptance of our decision.

We also thank you for your comments and will convey them to the management for their review and consideration.

We are sure that with the support & encouragement of yourselves & the school, Ryan will make progress. And we wish him all the best with his PSLE exams and future endeavours.

Very PR-ish but so swee swee maah ! But I didn't say so in my reply...later they use as template lol.

In my reply, I stated for the record that we did not re-appeal, we accepted the decision of no exemption, that we were there at the meeting & there is no necessity to bring up the (drumroll) "criteria".

And I went on to state the crux of the matter which they did not get. It is not the rejection for exemption. My grumble is how it was handled from the start. Don't send a rejection letter & then send an officer to meet with the child & the teachers. For what ?

Do it the other way round. Send the officer to do an assessment of the child & talk to the teachers. Then send a letter a week later to say sorry, can't exempt. Even if internally the decision was already made earlier, it doesn't matter. Reject after assessment. Get the processes right. The parents will be satisfied.

Anyway, I said no need to reply. Just wanted to air my views. Quite fatigued.

Had a nice lunch with my two colleagues who are leaving. Glad one of them has a job to move on to & the other has interviews lined up.

They told me that in the movie Just Follow Law which I have not watched, a middle aged lady took up some courses to improve herself. So she learnt how to use the computer & started her own blog. Blog site is called laucharbor.com hahahah. I should have thought of that for my blog space. But I not quite lau so maybe I should have used chiobu.com.blogspot lolol.

Arggghhh...son got hold of ciggies & wanted to secretly experiment. His plan got foiled. Which is a good thing. Long lecture went on about the hazards & our own experiences with smoking. We know kids are curious & will attempt such (mis)adventures at one time or another. We've let our kids try beer & wine. So that they know what it tastes like & won't be curious to try it on the quiet. So we offered him a ciggie to try, infront of us. He refused & was remorseful. We also impressed on him that the hard core stuff would be destructive. Also told him that he should not let peer pressure influence him & how to handle it. Say no even if the peers say he is stupid. Better to be stupid than dead.

Errr I hope that Hwa Chong wins the debate finals. But I think they won't. Missed the results.

Waaaaah ! Ribena has no vitamin C ?? I grew up with that. Maybe that's why I didn't grow upwards very much lolol.

Lament for the Day : Am I so magniloquent that I can't be understood or just incomprehensible ?