I REFER to the letter by the Ministry of Education (MOE), 'Why there are various forms of assessment' (Nov 4). I had written six months ago on a related issue - non-disclosure of assessment papers by the Board for Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages.

To quote MOE: 'Assessment is an integral part of a child's learning process as it provides feedback to the teacher, the child and parents on the child's performance and level of understanding.'

From this statement, the board is doing only half the job - it assesses students through exams but for whose benefit? These assessments are merely used to write marks in report cards as in the past five years I have not seen my sons' exam papers in Mother Tongue (Hindi). I have no idea of the mistakes my sons made in those papers. Neither teachers nor students nor parents have access to these answer papers. Since the teachers have not seen the papers, they are unable to guide the students in how to improve. I have been able neither to express disappointment at shoddy and careless work nor praise a good performance. Marks awarded to students in an assessment are also an indication of how and where they need to improve. Each student has his strengths and weaknesses - concerned parents need to know these so we can help them to do their best. Our repeated pleas to those concerned have been in vain.

We are not asking for much - only a change for the better.

Sonia Mehrotra (Mrs)

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 13 Nov, 2008.