In line with the nation-wide Teachers’ Day celebrations, the Education Services Union (ESU) has lined up a series of initiatives to appreciate private education workers this September.
The month-long celebration was kick-started by an industry-wide effort to appreciate early childhood educators. ESU has reached out to over 158,000 pre-schoolers from over 1,600 kindergartens and childcare centres, and invited them and their parents to thank the early childhood educators.
Each pre-schooler was given a special printed template where they could draw pictures and penned words of thanks and encouragement to their teachers, together with their parents. Parents were also encouraged to take a photo of the completed piece and post it on a dedicated online Instagram site, where the educators would be able to view their students’ and parents’ dedications on the Instagram site: http://iconosquare.com/tag/thankyousgecteacher/.
Ms Loren Sophia, an early childhood educator for three years, was happy to see so many students and parents took time to participate, and was really touched by the gestures. “We are heartened when parents acknowledge our efforts in ensuring their child’s progress and appreciate us in return. These gestures are what kept us passionate and continue to give our best in our job,” said Ms Loren.
In addition, ESU also called upon early childhood operators and private education organisations to show appreciation to their employees for their hard work and sacrifices. To date, 19 of them have responded to the call and most have committed to granting employees paid time-off or declaring a day-off for their employees. Others would be treating their employees to either a meal, or giving them tickets to visit the S.E.A Aquarium or watch a movie at Shaw Cineplex. There were also companies that would be bringing their employees on overseas retreats.
Mr Haja Mohideen, Director of Little Dophins Playskool, believed that employer recognition will empower teachers and enhance their passion in the job. “Dedicated teachers will put in effort to develop the children holistically, and inspire them to be good citizens who will contribute to the society,” said Mr Haja.”
Last but not least, some 200 ESU members working in private education institutions were treated breakfast today at the McDonalds at Bugis+ as part of the appreciation efforts.
Through these efforts, ESU wanted to thank Singapore’s 36,500 private education workers for their unwavering passion towards their job and the contributions they made in nurturing our next generation.
“We are greatly encouraged by the positive responses from industry stakeholders, particularly employers and parents, towards these initiatives. Their heartfelt appreciation fuels the continuous passion in our private education workers to go the extra mile for the students,” said Ms Calista Geraldine Roch, ESU President.
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