Today (Sunday May 4th 2008), two articles in the STAR attracted my attention. The first is under the heading “Be grateful to teachers” written by Barisha (probably a teacher) and the second is “An Association For Parents?” written by Hussein Tan.Before any MOE or JPWPKL officials jump on me or try to pass a judgment or to start another round of investigation against me in running a school PIBG, please allow me to repeat that what is written is done in personal capacity and reflects my own personal thoughts and it does not reflect the official position of any of the organization that I represent.
I refer to the first article which was written by Cikgu (?) Barisha. To a certain extent, I agree with her. Extra class should be done for the weak students. The problem that we face today is that parents are equally Kiasu – they want their children to attend any extra class that the school are organizing and over and above that they will send their children to tuition centres. Sometimes I feel that the parents are rather feeling insecure and not the children. However some school force all the children to attend extra class and make it compulsory for parents to pay for it.
In Barisha’s letter, she uses the word “nurture”. I think this is a big word and giving extra class is only a small part in nurturing. I too feel that, we parents should be grateful to the teachers i.e. to the “professional and dedicated teachers and not all human being who become teachers in school”