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Appeal to the Minister for Education to consider a special bonus to recognise our teachers for their effort in managing the extraordinary workload and stresses during the pandemic while continuing to educate our students. This gesture is also similar given out by Ministry of Health for all their healthcare personnel in managing the pandemic.
News Details:
Mr Speaker Sir, let me start my speech by wishing all our teachers a Happy Teachers’ Day. In fact, a celebration in appreciation of the efforts put by our teachers should not just be tied to a single day, but we should explore a month- long celebration and more importantly, a lifelong recognition.
Recognition and appreciation of educators
On this note, I would like to record my appreciation to my primary school teachers from Mei Chin Primary School, from the cohort of 1979 – 1984, and from Yusof Ishak Secondary School, from the cohort of 1985 – 1988. This group of teachers taught me not just academic subjects, but also moral education and values, that I hold onto until today. Of the many teachers, one that remains a strong memory is my secondary school form teacher Mr Cherry Chacko, who taught me English and Literature. In fact, he was the one that gave me the opportunity at such a young age of 15 years old, to address the school during assembly. An opportunity and experience that I will never forget till today. Thank You Mr Cherry Chacko.
Not forgetting all my other teachers from both primary and secondary school, without your dedication and commitment to educate me with the right values, I would not be able to be where I am today, both as a principal technical officer and a union leader in the power industry.
Alarming cases of disrespect and abuse of educators in recent years
Sir, I decided to raise this motion arising from an incident that recently went viral of a student in St Andrew’s Secondary School. I strongly believe and affirm that no student is allowed to disrespect their teacher and what more to threaten in such nature. I have a feeling that such an incident of that nature is not an isolated one or few, but there’s so many more. In fact, I do hear similar stories of teachers experiencing similar disrespectful moments. At times, it is much worse when parents do the same towards their children’s teachers just to defend their wrongdoings and hide beneath their “guilt-tripping behaviours”.
Hence, I call on the Ministry to give guidelines or even empowerment to school principals or even the victimised teachers to report any rude or harsh incidents teachers faced to the relevant authorities, as a means of self-protection from any abusive behaviours from both parents and students.
Whilst preparing my content for this motion, I recently reached out to my fellow union leaders from the Singapore Teachers’ Union, Singapore Malay Teachers’ Union, Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Union and Singapore Tamil Teachers’ Union. In addition, there are many more that represent educators from early childhood schools and Institutes of Higher Learning. I also managed to speak to few friends and cousins who are currently teaching too. It is to my surprise that annually, these unions received more than 1000 cases of grievances alone, aside from feedbacks. The grievances and feedbacks range from managing students’ behaviour, abusive attacks from students’ parents, work appraisal, mental health and on a lighter note, career progression. The unions acknowledged that Ministry of Education (MOE) had been supportive towards them in resolving conflicts and take feedbacks positively on salary scale and career progression. One recent example was the recent announcement of pay revision and increase for teachers ranging between five and 10 percent; the introduction of a new grade; and a 30-year retention scheme which hopefully can motivate our teachers to continue their careers in educating our children and students.
More should be done to protect and empower educators
This announcement signifies MOE’s continuous commitment to constantly monitor and review the teachers’ salaries, welfare, and work prospects.
Notwithstanding the above, the unions believe that MOE could do more in terms of policies to address teachers’ concerns and hence, setting policies that would at least set a baseline for school practices. Further, MOE ought to expect school leadership to support teachers more and better. I believe it is the school leadership which is the fulcrum. Collectively, school leadership plays a pivotal role in school culture, work-life harmony, workload, expectations of teachers as well as shielding teachers from abusive parents and students. Hence, I would like to put forward three areas for MOE’s consideration to provide more support for our teachers.
Managing students’ discipline better to protect both teachers’ and students’ dignity
First, it is about managing students’ discipline. More support must be given to teachers by school leaders, MOE as well as parents. Students must be made aware and reminded continuously that any misbehaviours, rudeness, aggressiveness, or worse, threats, will never be condoned and they must face equal-like consequences. The school leadership must support the teachers in disciplining students and stand firm when communicating with parents on disciplinary matters. While approaches to disciplinary matters may differ, teachers must feel that these approaches are effective with the strong backing of the school leadership. We must ensure that the dignity of teachers is maintained and that the restorative practices are also implemented to resolve conflict, repair harm, and heal relationships. This is also to maintain and uphold the students’ dignity and well-being.
Parents to support and complement students’ growth and development
Next is on work-life balance. Our teachers have their personal lives and family to attend to. We, as parents, need to understand that teachers need their work- life balance as much as us. Even with this, the teachers would always go beyond the call of duty. However, parents must always respect teachers’ private space and time. Parents can play a role in becoming constructive and complementary partners of teachers to support the students’ growth and development.
Reducing non-teaching-related workload for teachers
The final one is about reducing teachers’ workload and calibrated expectations. As teaching becomes increasingly complex and there are competing demands on teachers’ time, more could be done for this final area. Teachers need more time outside of classroom teaching to attend to marking, preparing for lessons, and working on student guidance. To then load them with committee work, non-teaching-related duties and meetings as well as constant, non-stop WhatsApp messages from multiple chat groups is unwise and untenable. The expectations must be calibrated (vis-à-vis ranking and appraisal) as well as reducing non-teaching-related workload ought to be reviewed. As teachers go beyond the call of duty, it is even more vital that there is curtailing of teachers’ official duties and calibration of expectations.
(Sir, I will now speak in Malay)
Kejadian yang berlaku antara anak murid and guru sekolah baru-baru ini adalah sesuatu yang amat memalukan dan membimbangkan. Sepanjang pengalaman saya sebagai pelajar di sekolah kawasan perumahan, pergaduhan dan yang serupa dengannya adalah perkara biasa dikalangan
pelajar sekolah sendiri dan lain. Tetapi, tidak pernah terlintas di fikiran saya bahawa kita dalam suatu zaman yang anak murid tidak menghormati guru mereka. Ini tidak boleh diterima langsung dan sebagai ibu bapa, kita harus berasa malu atas perbuatan sekiranya ada anak anak kita bekelakuan demikian. Sebagai ibu bapa, kita wajib tegas dalam mendidik anak kita menghormati para guru bukan sebaliknya. Untuk ini, saya ingin berkongsi serangkap pantun:
Pakai baju Warna Biru; Pergi ke sekolah pukul satu; Murid sentiasa hormat guru, kerana guru pembekal ilmu.
Dalam membuat persiapan ucapan saya, saya juga telah mendekati dan cuba mendapatkan maklum balas yang dari rakan kesatuan sekerja dan juga kenalan saya yang bergelar guru. Sedih dan pilu sekali mendengar keluhan dan rintihan mereka dari sudut cabaran menangani disiplin murid sekolah, campur tangan ibu bapa, gangguan waktu peribadi mereka di luar waktu sekolah dan banyak lagi. Ada juga yang dah lama tidak melihat peningkatan dalam tangga kerjaya mereka setelah beberapa tahun. Namun, ini telah berubah tidak lama dahulu apabila MOE membuat perubahan dasar tentang kerjaya guru.
Maka di sini, saya merayu kepada semua ibu bapa yang mana anak masih lagi bersekolah untuk menghormati waktu peribadi guru dan tidak sesuka hati menghantar mesej, email sebagainya dan lebih buruk lagi, mengharap respon secepat mungkin.
Saya yakin cabaran awal tadi mendapat perhatian dan sokongan dari MOE dan pada masa yang sama, MOE harus lebih prihatin terhadap sumbangan para guru dan tidak meletakkan tanggungjawab yang berlebihan terhadap para guru.
Saya merayu pada MOE dan juga pengetua sekolah untuk memikirkan perkara ini dan mencari jalan penyelesaian yang terbaik.
Saya ingin syorkan pada semua guru yang merupakan ahli kesatuan sekerja untuk mendekati kesatuan anda. Begitu juga pada wakil kesatuan sekerja, anda harus sentiasa mendekati ahli kesatuan anda demi untuk mendengar dan mendapatkan maklum balas tentang cabaran dan harapan mereka sebagai seorang guru. Apa yang lebih utama dari maklum balas ini ialah, pihak kementerian serta pengetua sekolah menerimanya dengan minda yang terbuka, dan elakkan dari pada menghukum guru berikut dengan menurunkan penilaian tahunan mereka.
Khas buat semua guru-guru dimuliakan, ingin saya melakarkan serangkap lagi pantun sebagai penghargaan buat jasa anda – Manis Rasanya Buah Delima, Masak Sebiji Dicelah Daun, Budi Guru Saya Terima, Jadi kenangan Bertahun- tahun.
Call for special bonus in recognition of teachers’ hard work
I am appealing to the Minister for Education to consider a special bonus to recognise our teachers for their effort in managing the extraordinary workload and stresses during the pandemic while continuing to educate our students. This gesture is also similar given out by Ministry of Health for all their healthcare personnel in managing the pandemic.
To the parents out there, continue educating our children to always respect their teachers and most importantly, please parents, respect the teachers’ privacy and time. Avoid sending any unnecessary messages beyond school hours. If we believe that we as career-minded parents need work life balance, the teachers need that too.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to share a quote from an American advocate in the 1800s, by the name of Dorothea Dix, “The duties of a teacher are neither few nor small, but they elevate the mind and give energy to the character”.
On that note, #EveryTeacherMatters!
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