2 LOVELY GIRLS

It's end of of the year, which means a flurry of meetings before the closure - RING OUT THE OLD . So this week we had a short course on financial management. Put us up at a 2 star hotel with barely enough room to 'swing a cat'. However there's a rather odd looking chair in each room. (Below)

After the course, we moved to another hotel 'Vistana', for ISO management review meeting. This time the rooms were spacious - although the location was rather seedy. Anyway, after the meeting, I took a taxi to 'balik kampong' Together in the taxi were 2 very lively girls. Catherine Koh (left) and Jean Lim (right)- both 23 years. They only met and got to know each other only during this trip although both are from BP.

Both of them just graduated. Catherine is now with Public Bank while Jean is working with a Bio Tech company and teaches part-time in UCIS. What amazed me about these 2 girls was that both expressed very matured views about life. Very pragmatic and very focused about their future. We had very interesting conversation about the education system in Malaysia and the quality of teachers in general. Both were in SMK schools and were not very impressed by their teachers - whom they felt gave them minimal input. They attributed their success to their tuition teachers rather than their school teachers. "It's a chicken and egg issue," I said. "No, auntie, our teachers never actually prepare their work - just come into class and read the textbook. Gave us only very few assignments - because they are lazy to mark." What can I say? "Not all teachers are like that. Today's teachers are much more committed and we have better training modules." Keep my fingers crossed!!!