Terrible exam questions

I AM sorry to say this, but I think the teachers at my brother’s school are incompetent.

When reading his Year Two Science exam paper, it is baffling how a question — prepared by a Science teacher, checked by the Science panel, and verified by the school’s senior assistant — could still read as follows:

Study the pictures (animal pictures). Fill in the blanks.

A. A bird can...

B. A monkey can...

C. A snake can...

D. A frog can...

The answers that were given: jumping, gliding, climbing and fliying.

Yes, fliying.

As if the grammar mistake isn’t bad enough, they had to have a spelling mistake as well. Three teachers involved, and “a monkey can climbing”?

Another question features a picture of nine different foods, namely fish, a slice of meat, a papaya, a glass of milk, a slice of watermelon, some cabbage, a bowl of rice, some noodles and a slice of bread.

The question asks the students to group the foods into three categories, namely foods that “help us grow”, “help us stay healthy”, and “gives us energy”.

Honestly, all the foods listed above fit into all three categories, albeit to varying degrees. I am not satisfied with this question — it’s not specific or clear cut.

On another question, there was a picture of a cat eating a fish. Pupils had to complete the sentence “A cat eats...” with the following choices:

A. fish

B. fish and rice

My brother answered fish, and was marked wrong.

Yes, some pet cats would eat rice provided the fish is there, but generally a cat would choose “A” over “B”. And there was not a single grain of rice in the picture.