Candidates' Weakness and Suggested Remedies
The candidates were generally weak in:
- stating safety rules that must be observed on a building site;
- stating the use of fire brick and facing brick;
- stating the advantages of steel formwork over timber formwork;
- explaining the terms batching, placing and curing in relation to concrete works;
- sketching a section through a timber formwork for a floor slab;
- sketching a section through an independent scaffold;
- stating the function of an ebonite strip used in terrazzo flooring.
To overcome these weaknesses:
- students should be given opportunity to visit a construction site at least once in a month;
- school workshop should be well equipped not only with tools but also with special materials that are not common such as facing bricks, fire bricks, etc for teaching purposes;
- students should review their past questions and also by giving them assignments
in the areas they have weaknesses.