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MOE
vs Teachers Part 2 of 3
11 JUL 07
The
first crap that I notice about teaching is the sheer volume of time-wasting
meetings. These meetings can last for hours and when I do sit in,
they made the HODs present numbing data after data in a power point
presentation. This is bureaucracy at its finest. Teachers are already
bogged down with crazy students and piles of books to mark but the
MOE system slows teachers down further by wasting precious hours.
The policy makers seem to have this analogy: that the more hours
spent is equal to more work being done.. This is very far from the
truth. If
you ever work for a struggling SME (a company with an actual boss,
not a supervisor, and maybe 3 or 4 employees), you will see the
boss will NEVER waste time on long meetings because he is there
to make sure productivity is high. But Government sectors are
so entangled by red tape that it turned the noble teaching profession
into a nightmare only teachers know. |
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The
longest company meeting I had when I was
working for an SME is 10 minutes. |
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| Now
don’t get me wrong. Even though the topic is relevant and
you have to gather the teachers together, by all means do so, BUT,
whatever did happen to cutting it short and to the point? Can you
state your case without all the textbooks of data and statistics?
And just when you thought the last HOD have reach her 113 page power
point presentation about how members from the Gardening Club have
achieved growing water hyacinths in the school pond, the principal
made an announcement and pop a MOE VCD for everybody to watch. I
can almost hear a faint sigh of desperation. I
even saw a teacher marking some exercise books under the meeting
table. And apart from weekly meetings, we have separate meetings
with HODs, Moral Education meetings, meetings regarding on discipline,
meetings on how to stop girls wearing black bras, meeting on handling
male teachers from staring the black bras etc. etc. You guys do
not know how bad it is. And if anyone of you have teacher friends,
you know they are very busy.. very busy with BULLSHIT MEETINGS.
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However,
these slow-teacher-down meetings are just the tip of the iceberg.
The bulk of teaching hell are the students themselves and a poor
discipline system. Teens of today are not like teens of the 90s.
Teens of today have porn right at their finger tips (meaning moral
decay), their youth revolve around idle banter via MSN and Alamak
Chats and they spend less time with parents because both parents
work to keep up with the rising costs and the 7% GST (meaning
less supervision). The stay at home housewife is a very rare breed
these days. |
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What
do you do if a guy throws a chair or curse at you in public? Do
you want justice? Do you wish a punish and purification program
to be implemented ASAP? That is how bad kids in school are. Teachers
are subjected to verbal abuse and depending on the surrounding
neighborhood estate, things thrown at teachers can range from
a chair to a bottle. I did get a situation back then when I was
teaching. I was yelling at a 2T class because they were getting
out of hand and suddenly I heard a voice mimicking mine. Another
sec 3 student was behind some pillar and when I told him to come
forth, he walk as if he wants a fight. The hairs at the back of
my neck are already upright.
Deep in my mind I
kept telling myself to stay in control because honestly I was
ready to physically fight him. A knee to the face would be very
sweet. Maybe he has forgotten that I am a relief teacher and
that I am not tied to a $30k bond. I can quit at any time and
if he ever assaulted me, I would barrage him with kicks and
punches and make my jail time worth it. If he wants to complain
to his parents, I am the sort of teacher who would punch his
parents too.
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It's
a good thing, my teaching gig lasted for only 3 months. If I have
stayed on, this would most likely who have happened. |
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| Another
incident is when this ex student came to the school to sit for an
N level paper. He was a regular private student but his hair resembled
a rare golden monkey you only see in the jungles of Amazon. This
teacher I know is in charge of discipline and he told the boy that
he should cut his hair if he wants to come to the school next time.
The boy made such a ruckus and acted in such a pai kiah manner.
He kicked chairs and tables as he head to the Principal office as
he called his Dad to come down. His hooligan Dad came to the school
and pointed his finger to the disciplinary teacher in the face,
using condescending tones. The boy said he was told that he could
not take the N level because of his hair. Such a convenient twist
of words to spin the truth:) The
worst part of the whole scenario was not the monkey teenage boy
and caveman Dad but the spineless Principal who came up with every
excuse you can think of; to suggest that the Discipline teacher
should have conveyed his message clearly. Indirectly, the Principal
was saying that it was the teachers fault.. no statement about
how the teenage boy should stop acting like a freaking baboon.
No warning to the Dad to watch his condescending tones. From the
NKF saga to school principals, sometimes I do wonder why this
present administration have the knack in placing the worst people
at the top.
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My best
guess why Principals rather blame it on teachers is that they
fear that parents might complain to MOE or publish their complaints
in the papers. They will then have to deal with the media, questions
from MOE etc etc.And that will in turn may affect their Principal's
salary. Hmmm.. so that means, teachers will be last on their mind.
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| I don’t
know what happened but since they legalized homosexuals, schools
have also turned gay. Somebody have came up with the idea that schools
should treat parents like paying customers. Teachers suddenly became
customer service personnel. Principals and teachers are scared shitless
of complaints from parents and unfortunately students know this.
No matter how ridiculous the complaint is, most likely, teachers
are always FIRST to be blamed. I have came up with the conclusion
that the MOE does not trust the very teachers that they employ because
of this particular system; When a student creates a problem, he
is hauled to the office to write, get this, a piece of paper to
state his point of view of what happened.
Now this is where it
gets bizarre. Whatever the student writes in this form actually
holds weight! The situation SHOULD NEVER be teacher’s words
against student’s words! But it is today! If you go to court,
whatever report a policeman writes to a judge is hard evidence
while whatever members of society says are subjective. That is
the how it should be. Now we have a 30 year old and a 14 year
old trying to convince a Principal. The system does not back teachers
up at all. And now we have teachers afraid of students because
any wrong move would result in a complaint from parents. What
happens if you get a complaint when you have a 30k bond burden
on your back? Scary isn’t it. Whoever came up with this
should give yourself a pat on the back because you are the cause
of misery for teachers islandwide!
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Parents-always
right policy sucks,
Evil Bunny! |
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