Star Q
When teachers talk about ways on how to improve pupils' English Language proficiency, nobody seems to really listen. The powers that be seem to acknowledge the existence of this group of highly trained and experienced people merely as people who teach children and at the same time become nannies who take care of other people's children while their parents are away at work.
I am not apologetic about my opinion because it does not come from one or two months of service in the education industry. In fact it comes from almost thirty years of experience and observations about the local education environment.
Nowhere has the fact that teachers are actually nannies to other people's children been so apparent than during the haze incidents when schools were instructed by the Education Ministry to be temporarily closed due to unhealthy air conditions.
Through the printed media, we suddenly realize that many parents actually admit that their own flesh and blood are a burden to them because they had to take care of their own children due to the closing of schools. Many said that they had to take their children to work, while some lamented that they did not know where to send their children to and some were even worried to leave their children at home all by themselves. They voiced out only one solution to their predicaments; if only schools were opened. In other words, they needed teachers to take care of their children while they go to work!
And henceforth lies the fault of the Education Ministry! You see, thirty years ago, a typical school day would end at about 1.30 p.m. and pupils went straight home. There were more non-working parents (mothers especially!) at home to take care of these children and even those who were working, made sure that there were other people who would keep an eye on their children. No problems there!
Ten years later, school ended half an hour later at 2.00 p.m. Many parents who previously did not work, found other beneficial things to do with that extra half an hour, but they still managed to care for their own children after school hours.
In the last ten years, a typical school day ends at about 3.00 p.m. Some schools go overboard by ending their school days at 4.20 p.m. So, parents, mothers included, found that they had a lot more free time which could be used beneficially. These parents found themselves jobs, which eventually bound them to their occupations and hindered from their real responsibilities of caring for the welfare of their own children.
I am sure, I am not the only one who was suspicious about the Education Ministry's intentions when it decided to prolong the school hours. The first day the ministry made that decision, I prophetically told my friends that these people working in air-conditioned offices really needed scapegoats to care for their children while they work, and the only logical victims should be the teachers. I was right then and I am still right, today!
These parents should not only know how to bear children, they should also learn to bear with their children. Don't let other people bear your maternal and paternal responsibilities.
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