CELOTEH (2)

Here is the second part of the Celoteh.

There was no one to direct our questions to. So we waited. After an hour of grinding the heels, my feet screamed of agonies and begged for a respite. I tried the closed door and it was not locked, so me and the other ladies went in and rest our poor feet.

More teachers joined us in the room. I was getting concerned because I still did not know where to go to. I came out of the room and saw a few more people walking around the courtyard. They turned out to be more teachers and were in the dark as well. They thought I was the person in charge (well .. my size always causes confusion – many thought I am a Guru Besar)

Other teachers in the room came out too and as we were deliberating the situation, a rather disheveled looking man ‘berlenggang kangkung’ carrying a CPU came into the courtyard and rather unassumingly admitted he was the person in charge BUT since there were other ‘things’ going on simultaneously and bla, bla, bla …(he mumbled something incomprehensible).

I took the lead to inquire about our schedule for the day since it was almost ten and the first class was scheduled at ten thirty. Another incomprehensible explanation and he told us to go and register for rooms at the hostel (which requires us ladies in our high heels to walk quite a long distance to our parked cars and drag our luggage all the way) and to have breakfast prepared for us at a café a few blocks away. Then he disappeared.

I figured that I could not get back in time for the first class so I decided to do that later. By ten thirty, many who went to register for hostel room have not returned and the man appeared again and insisted that I go register for the room and have breakfast because there was no way the first class could start.

I thought of registering for room during lunch break and turned to the said person-in-charge requesting confirmation about the day’s schedule. He was unable to be conclusive. I suggested speaking with the Head of Department and he made a few calls with his mobile.

A well dressed handsome young man came and introduced himself as the Head of Department (HD), and the man in charge turned out to be one of the lecturers at the department. We gathered in the room we went into earlier. HD explained that he was going on transfer next week and asked us to send any complaint or comment directly to him.

I took the opportunity to tell him about the difficulty of finding the registration desk due to absence of signs and voiced out my dissatisfaction about the way the registration was handled. I expected some kind of information at the registration desk and registration for room and car sticker to be taken care of during course registration as is the usual practice for such courses. HD apologized for the inconvenience and said such comments will be noted to improve the situation for the next six cohorts.

I thought everything was settled then and despite the unsuitable condition of the room, class commenced about two hours later than was scheduled and conducted by no less than the Head of Unit from the State Resource Centre. It was an introduction to the ‘Aplikasi Perdana’ under the Smart School Concept, a component of MultiMedia Super Corridor launched in 1997.

It was quite upsetting to note that after ten years of being launched and RM23 billion spent on the concept, this key personnel treated all the course participants as ignorant of current trend in information technology. The intro to ‘Aplikasi Perdana’ treated video conferencing, internet and emails as novelties. I think the lecture notes must have been prepared ten years ago and was never updated. (This should be a strong reminder for me to update my notes for my students).

Oh dear! Looks like I am running out of space again and have to extend the series. I hope I am not boring you to death with my ramblings. If I am, I would appreciate it if you would let me know and tell me how to make the reading better.

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