My father employed a maid for my Grandma when she fell ill years ago and till now, she had already served us for ten years. When she was first helping us, she was bad at English and struggled to communicate. However, my Grandma and other family members could speak Malay quite well and was able to converse with her. Until now, she had learnt the ropes and now speak not only English, but Chinese as well, and is very faithful to our family.
Many had long argued that many things cannot be determined by tests, and most of all, faithfulness, skill and sincerity. Is that not what many Singaporeans hiring maids worry about? That she will abuse your child or steal your things or slack? How good is a person if she is wonderful at subjects like English but is dishonest, or lazy, or does not even know a pint of housework? Do people hire helpers to provide help or have another English speaker at home?
Also worth considering is the maids’ background. Many people struggle to grasp any language, be it English or any others all over the world, for the Americans, is it not hard for the average citizens to grasp a foreign language? If so for a developed country, what more for a developing country like Indonesia where many still live below the poverty line? In my knowledge, many Indonesian and Filipino maids who come to work in Singapore do so to earn more money for their families who find it hard to do so in their home countries, and thus, it is not a unfounded claim that many of them had never been exposed to the English language for most of their lives. It is unable for them to master even the basic English standards for the exam given the lack of time, resources and familiarity to the English language which many others take months, if not years to master.
Even though many argue that maids should that the initiative to communicate with their employers and that they must be able to speak English in order to do so, most should consider two factors. Is there any way the maids are able to grasp the English Language so easily and why shouldn’t the employers also take some initiative? Maids do not have British Council teachers training them and it had been revealed that most of the time, they rely on themselves to learn the English language. Thus, without enough help or guidance, many maids suffer trying to understand the language. Also, just like how my Grandma did, employers should take the initiative and try to learn at least some basic native words of the maid’s origin for is not the relationship between a employer and employee a important one, and both should try to care and understand one another. Similarly, the relationship between the employer and the maid is as such, and thus, the employer must be willing to sacrifice time to communicate with the maid and if the maid have dedication to the employer, she too will be touched and work hard to do so in return.
Thus, with this, I conclude that the Ministry of Manpower and any other concerned agencies and people should revise the examination or even do away if it if it was possible, for pen and paper will never be able to test the will of one’s heart, and more should be done to provide to the maids’ needs such as providing more English lessons and resources instead of just a sample of examination questions for them in order to ensure that such a tragedy will not happen again and to ultimately improve the relationship and understanding between maids and employers
Background to this post
The incident last Saturday in which a maid ended up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after a failed attempt to commit suicide after failing her Foreign Domestic Worker Entry test before dying on wednesday have led to much debate.
The Foreign Domestic Worker Entry Test that had been put under much scrutiny in the past few days. The test was first introduced in 2005 by the Ministry of Manpower(MOM) to improve the literacy and numeracy level of the maids, and maids of all nationalities must take it. It consists of 40 multiple choice questions on topics like home safety and basic childcare and takes half an hour to complete. Maids can take it three times in as many days and they can prepare for the test by going through 120 sample questions.
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