SingCitizen » teaching

Penalised for trying to be a good mum and teacher

singcitizen — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:28:55 +0000

Source: The Straits Times, Page A19, 17 May 2010

Upon returning to school full time, she fought a losing battle with the school administration to provide her and other mothers-to-be with a place for expressing milk…

But when performance bonuses were given out, she was not only given a pro-rated bonus (which I understand), but also a lower performance grading.

While I am very grateful for the increased maternity benefits a young family now receives, I would like to highlight that there seems to be a contradiction when Singaporeans are encouraged to have more babies, but mothers are penalised when trying to concurrently be both good mums and good workers.

She is now expecting her second child and I won’t be surprised if she leaves the teaching service.

Are teachers always right?

singcitizen — Mon, 10 Feb 2003 13:54:56 +0000

Just last week, a nephew of mine asked for help in his school science homework. He’s in Primary 3 at Sengkang Primary School. The question asked in the workbook was: Describe two differences between a zebra and a tiger. I told him one of the two differences was that a zebra had a mane whereas a tiger did not have one. He wrote down the answer accordingly.

The next day, he came to me with the following remark: My teacher says that a zebra does not have a mane. Only a lion has a mane. My nephew further volunteered that he had erased the answer on the zebra’s mane and written the teacher’s CORRECT answer in its place.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Immediately, I went onto the Internet and surfed to sites with pictures of a zebra’s mane using the Google search engine. I showed my nephew these pictures and pointed to him the mane behind the zebra’s head.

Granted his science teacher might not have seen a zebra before. I thought perhaps the teacher should get back to my nephew after getting the facts first, but instead she took it on herself to assert that a zebra had no mane.

I am relating this incident because I know children at Primary 3 tend to be impressionable. And they tend to think that what their school teacher says is always right – after all she’s a teacher at school! And those at home can’t be more knowledgeable than their school teacher!

I am sure such incidents are commonplace. At least, now, my nephew knows I was not pulling a fast one on him.

Whither literature in our schools?

singcitizen — Mon, 14 Oct 2002 13:42:46 +0000

Another batch of literature students will be sitting for the subject at O level in early December 2002. This year’s batch of candidates is expected to be less than a quarter of the cohort of O-level students here.

Lately, there has been some interest in the dwindling number of literature students. A working group for the Economic Review Committee has suggested that the subject be made compulsory.

That, I think, will not stop the fall either in the number of students taking literature or the overall grades for the subject. The simple reason is that students nowadays are not sufficiently proficient in the English Language. Making the grades for the English Language is already a hurdle for most students here, and literature is generally regarded as a subject that’s more difficult to study.

So, if it’s entirely up to the students to choose, I am afraid they will rather drop the subject than risk failing it in the examinations.

There has been talk that literature as a subject has been on the decline since ranking in schools was introduced in 1992 and the statistics appear to support that point.
I wish to differ. I think ranking in schools merely exacerbated the fall in interest in literature among our students. I suggest that our students’ interest in literature started waning when the Speak Mandarin Campaign was introduced in Singapore.

In the seventies, Chinese students spoke dialect at home with their parents, relatives and friends. They watched dialect programmes, in Hokkien and Cantonese, on television. At school, they formed bonds with other students through the English Language. Chinese students spoke to other Chinese students in English, as well as in dialect.

As a result, there was a strong grasp of the English Language among those who went to school in the seventies or earlier. Of course, Indian, Malay and Eurasian students then used English as a medium of communication with their Chinese peers. Even now, this remains the case.

However, the use of Mandarin slowly but surely permeated all levels of society in the eighties with the introduction of the Speak Mandarin Campaign. The popularity of Mandarin has continued right to this day.

The evidence is all around us today. Parents and grandparents speak to their children in Mandarin. At school, students chatter away in Mandarin both in the classrooms and within the school grounds. Outside school, our students use Mandarin at stalls, shops, fast-food restaurants, on the bus and any other place you can think of.

So our Chinese students now have a better command of the Chinese Language, albeit at a price – the fall in the standard of spoken and written English in schools and at the workplace.

When I first met my wife, I found she spoke only a smattering of English although she was from the English stream. Mandarin would rattle from her tongue. She was ill at ease with the English Language. In the six years since, she has not only picked up better English from me but also become proficient enough in the language to use it to fire away scoldings at me in rapid succession. I was a student of the seventies and she went to school in the eighties – she’s 13 years my junior!

There’s a point in me bringing up that story about my wife and me. It is this – to arrest the decline in interest in literature, I think we must first tackle the falling standard of English among our students. Get them to use English more often both in school and outside. Imbue in them a greater interest in English so that they become proficient enough in the subject such that they will not think twice about using English when they are with their friends or their siblings.

It is only when our students have gained confidence in their use of English that we can embark on the task of getting them interested in literature. If they have no fear of English, then, in all likelihood, they will embrace literature with open arms.

This is a big about-turn. Can it happen? I certainly hope so, for, in the words of Life! arts correspondent ONG Sor Fern writing in The Straits Times of 7 Oct 2002, “literature is the repository of humankind’s collective heart and soul. It deepens our understanding of alien cultures; it allows us to recognise that the fears that unite us are more enduring than the misunderstandings and quarrels that divide us.”

Yes! We need doctors, engineers and technocrats to sustain our society. But, we also need these chaps to know they are not in it just for that purpose. They are in it because they belong to a group that goes by the name of humankind with the capacity for love, romance and beauty. Literature is love, romance and beauty – in short – life itself.

The Teacher’s Dilemma

singcitizen — Mon, 08 Oct 2001 01:34:23 +0000

Today marks the start of the GCE ‘N’ Level examinations in Singapore. Primary and secondary schools also commence their End-Of-Year examinations for students of all levels of education.

So this week is when the hard work of the teachers finally pay dividends in that students who have been attentive in class and have done their assignments regularly are likely to do well in their examination papers.

The job of a teacher is indeed not an easy one – having to manage a class as well as to produce results at the end of the year. Those teachers who have been fortunate to teach the EM1, EM2 and the Express Streams should count themselves lucky, for they need only worry about getting their students into gear for the exams. For the rest of the teaching profession, getting through to the end of the day at school has become quite a challenge.

Why is that so? Students in the EM3, Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams are a demanding lot. Much time and effort need to be spent just getting order back into the class. There are many students who are just not interested in getting an education. Their minds are far away. They are preoccupied with handphones, SMS and whatever other dreams that may infest their minds. They also come to school to have fun in the classrooms. What type of fun? For starters – wetting their classmates with water from their water bottles; throwing rolled-up paper balls at each other, and also at their teachers; wrestling; and stealing out of the classroom when the teacher’s back is turned.

And while they are having fun, teachers who get in their way are rudely accosted. Instances of such students throwing chairs in the direction of their teachers are becoming common place in secondary schools.

There are many students in the Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams who always want to have the last word. These students do not think twice about insulting their teachers and staring at them. Any teacher worth his salt will know that already and most likely will have to get the vice-principal or the principal to come in with the cane to settle the matter.

But caning is only a temporary solution. The students are back to their naughty selves within a day or two. So what has happened to discipline in schools?

It has come to the stage where a teacher is faced with two dificult choices: leave the profession or stay put.

Why is this such a difficult decision? Well, many join the teaching profession because their own teachers have left a profound effect on them, so much so they also want to become teachers. Many others become teachers because they love to be around children; they want to impart their skills to children; they also want to take a part in moulding the student’s character.

But, when faced with stress from having to manage difficult classes, such as those in the Normal streams, many become disillusioned. Some just can’t take the pressure any more. Working in an office has become a viable alternative to these teachers – they want to be anywhere else, just so that they don’t have to be around such students.

So, on the one hand, these teachers desire to keep from throwing in the towel because of their love for teaching, and on the other, they are stressed out from having to deal with problem kids day after day. What makes the decision harder for them to make is the fact that the government is dangling more incentives, such as gratuities, to keep them from leaving the teaching profession.

Just two days ago, Parliament passed a Bill to put in place yet another incentive for teachers who stay in the profession. Under this plan, the Ministry of Education will put aside S$2,000 to S$4,800 every year for each teacher. The teacher may then draw out part of the money at defined points – every three to five years – during his career. Larger payouts will be made during the 15th year and nearer retirement. But those who resign will forfeit the rest of the accumulated sum.

Those who choose to ignore the attractive incentives and leave teaching may find instant relief, but only temporarily. Why so? Because when these former teachers take up work in the private sector, they will find themselves embroiled in the world of office politics – not the mild type of office politics they had been accustomed to at school – and subsequently discover that they had ‘jumped out of the frying pan into the fire’. Ha Ha Ha. I don’t mean to be mean, but, that’s a plausible scenario.

Dealing with kids is very much easier than dealing with adults – take my word. So leaving the teaching profession is not the answer, and staying put adds to the teacher’s stress and just makes matters worse. How should the teacher in such a predicament handle the situation?

I suggest taking a proactive part in managing problem kids. You see, the boy who threw that chair at the teacher may very well be crying for attention. He just might not have the attention that he needs at home. A disproportionate number of students in the Normal stream (NA & NT) come from broken homes. Teachers who teach such classes must come to terms with that fact. Once the teacher understands the family background, it will be easy for him/her to look at the student from a whole new angle, and take steps to help the student manage his own deficiencies. In the course of this, the teacher’s stress will be alleviated.

But, that’s only one problem student in a class of about 40 students. There are likely to be a few more of these students, together with a sprinkling of those who think they can boss around their teachers. I guess the teacher needs to spend more time in this area after classroom hours. But, I am sure the end result will be worth the many hours spent establishing rapport with these problem kids. Let us not forget, a teacher’s job is to mould his/her students’ character. So, if you are a teacher, soldier on – your students need you as a pillar to lean against. Win over their hearts and minds!