Serious Elite teacher hates teaching in neighbourhood school

http://m.todayonline.com/singapore/primary-school-teacher-investigated-abusive-punishment-students



PUBLISHED: 1:05 AM, JULY 15, 2016UPDATED: 4:00 AM, JULY 15, 2016
SINGAPORE — Several parents, unhappy with how a maths and science teacher was disciplining students in Gongshang Primary School, have lodged complaints with the school and the Ministry of Education (MOE).

According to the parents, the female teacher from the school in Tampines — who has been relieved of her teaching duties and cannot be named as investigations into the case are still ongoing — had resorted to abusive punishment of her students in the classes she taught.

The punishments ranged from the students being called names, having to kneel beside the teacher’s table, and getting objects thrown at them.

Parents TODAY spoke to say this happened from as early as March this year. The teacher also called students who had forgotten to bring their science textbooks “a bunch of retarded monkeys”, said Ms Karen Tan, whose Primary 5 son was among the forgetful students.

The 42-year-old accountant added that her son, who has high myopia, had to constantly walk nearer to the whiteboard during lessons in class.

The teacher was said to have told the boy: “Too bad you can’t see. Go get new spectacles.”

To other students who did the same thing, she allegedly said: “Don’t you have the money to get new ones?”

In another incident that occurred before the school holidays in June, the teacher is said to have made a classmate of Ms Tan’s son sit on the floor beside her.

The student, whom Ms Tan said was “a little more playful than the rest”, was a little disruptive, and in an apparent fit of anger, the teacher allegedly threw a whiteboard marker at the boy’s head.

Ms Tan noted that while other teachers of the Primary 5 class lectured the students, only this teacher punished them to such an extent.

Ms Josephine Chua, whose son is also in the same class, told TODAY that the students often “have to dodge, because they never know what is going to get thrown their way”.

The 43-year-old homemaker said another parent had told their child’s form teacher about the teacher’s actions in March, while the science head of department was informed about the matter in April.

Ms Chua and her husband met the school’s management on Monday to discuss the teacher’s case.

TODAY understands that on Tuesday, the school sent out a circular to parents and students to inform them that the teacher had been transferred to teach non-core subjects in the school, such as art and social studies, with effect from the same day.

Her classes have been taken over by other teachers, and she is also no longer the form teacher of her class.

Mr George Cheah, the school’s vice-principal (administration), told TODAY: “The school takes any misconduct of our teachers very seriously. After receiving the parents’ feedback, the school leaders met the parents to understand their concerns.

“Our students’ welfare remains our top priority.”

Ms Chua told TODAY that the school’s decision “belittles the severity of the abuse”, and that the parents hope the teacher will be transferred out of the school, and into a non-teaching role.

Both Ms Chua and Ms Tan said they had met the teacher before during the parent-teacher sessions held before the June holidays. They described her as “patient, soft-spoken” and “cordial”.

The teacher’s alleged actions have also been detailed in a blog about motherhood, Mother Inc.

In response to TODAY’s queries, an MOE spokesperson said: “Teachers who fail to comply with our standards of conduct and discipline will be subjected to disciplinary action.

“The teacher has been relieved of her teaching duties while investigations are ongoing.”

Sounds like every class that I attended during my schooling days. Only things missing are caning, suspensions, calling your parents and going to the principal's office.

humans are basically retarded monkeys,nothing wrong with that.especially sinkies.how can u blame the teacher for being scientifically and anatomically correct?

what kind of a f*cked up school name is that. sounds like a tiong mountain village for gongcheebyes.

scroobal said:

Sounds like every class that I attended during my schooling days. Only things missing are caning, suspensions, calling your parents and going to the principal's office.

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That sounds right . Corporal punishment was even worse at home. How is it we built this country with bare hands ? We should have been basket cases one and all.

nowadays all these kids and parents are so spoilt and pampered. throwing chalks, duster, books, bags is a daily happening during our time, its normal to get slapped by the female teachers and get kicked and punched by some of the male teachers, its common for them to whack us with rulers until the ruler break and feather duster and broom sticks...and we will still be laughing and taunting them after that. some of us even challenged the teacher to fight and it was an honour to get caning by the principal, even bigger honour if get public caning in the morning assembly with your name and crime announced in front of the whole school, it was a big moment of pride becos u are looked upon as a hero by the guys...haha crazy shit so nostalgic just recalling those good old school days

scroobal said:

Sounds like every class that I attended during my schooling days. Only things missing are caning, suspensions, calling your parents and going to the principal's office.

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i thought u went to elite schools like ri and raffles girls primary school?how can this be a common scenario in ur school?

yes its perfectly alright to treat all these neighbourhood school kids like animals,it toughens them up makes them streetsmart,but unfortunately when they hit adulthood they remain dumb as a rock and academic failures/rejects.......u did not do much in motivating them,unfortunately humans are like that,either u can be educated or u fucking cant,either u are at one end of the spectrum or the other,either u are the super fucking nerdy dork from Hwa chong JC or the beng until cannot beng platoon of rejects that sings hokkien songs loudly during road march so the rest of the company can hear u and buay pai seh,or ur somewhere in the middle like the malay poly guy in NS.

Yes, home was worse, school became a welcome shelter. In those days parents would complain that the teacher was not strict or tough enough.

I was actually reading the article expecting to see something seriously wrong the teacher did. What sort of parent allows a severely myopic kid to walk to the board to read. Clearly the glasses don't work and maybe he should have arranged with the teacher for the lid to sit in front.

If I was a school principal I would have the teacher transferred to my school and with some guidance get her to deliver great results from the kids. With that sort of control and discipline I am sure the only thing left is to do is study hard.

Satyr said:

That sounds right . Corporal punishment was even worse at home. How is it we built this country with bare hands ? We should have been basket cases one and all.

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The top schools all had the toughest teachers. Their reputation was at stake. Every year one or two kids would be expelled. Teachers who were soft and less effective got sent to neighbourhood schools where expectations were lower. Ask any kid from ACS, RI, SJI etc.

frenchbriefs said:

i thought u went to elite schools like ri and raffles girls primary school?how can this be a common scenario in ur school?

yes its perfectly alright to treat all these neighbourhood school kids like animals,it toughens them up makes them streetsmart,but unfortunately when they hit adulthood they remain dumb as a rock and academic failures/rejects.......u did not do much in motivating them,unfortunately humans are like that,either u can be educated or u fucking cant,either u are at one end of the spectrum or the other,either u are the super fucking nerdy dork from Hwa chong JC or the beng until cannot beng platoon of rejects that sings hokkien songs loudly during road march so the rest of the company can hear u and buay pai seh,or ur somewhere in the middle like the malay poly guy in NS.

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old scbool teaching method bestest.recall one motber tongue senior teacher had a P2 boy stood on a chair, stripped his short exposing birdy to entire class...the boy took it like a man...whether he was physcologically affected when in adult life..thats another matter

To the old timers in this forum, it was pretty much the norm back then when corporal punishment was used often.

Now lay a hand on a student and pretty to face a social justice mob by the parents.

songsongjurong said:

old scbool teaching method bestest.recall one motber tongue senior teacher had a P2 boy stood on a chair, stripped his short exposing birdy to entire class...the boy took it like a man...whether he was physcologically affected when in adult life..thats another matter

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he grew up and became a successful exhibitionist

That's true but if you read the articles on the complaints, nothing to do with corporal punishments. We have a kid who wanted to die because he was asked to stand in class. Forget about the dinosaur days, we all know that when a teacher fails to control a class full of lively kids many of whom are naturally mischivious that class is gone for the year. If you go to Harvard and fail to participate in cockpit sessions or complete your assigments, you will be called in and get the same dressing down which I am told is as embarrassing as your primary school days.

blueRad said:

To the old timers in this forum, it was pretty much the norm back then when corporal punishment was used often.

Now lay a hand on a student and pretty to face a social justice mob by the parents.

Click to expand...

scroobal said:

The top schools all had the toughest teachers. Their reputation was at stake. Every year one or two kids would be expelled. Teachers who were soft and less effective got sent to neighbourhood schools where expectations were lower. Ask any kid from ACS, RI, SJI etc.

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i dunno about the older generations but i speak for the 90s and millenial generations.

iv been to a sap school and a neighbourhood school and i would say the teachers in the good schools got it the luckiest,the difference is like having good employees versus bad employees,with good employees ur job is already done,ur work is being done for u,all the have to do is teach,the transference of knowledge is automatic from teacher to student,with good students,they actually care about their grades,they are highly motivated,they actually understand the pressure upon them and feel this compulsion to perform at their highest and achieve their best.zero upkeep and very little maintenance.the teachers in the neighbourhood school though are the kindest and the most benevolent and angelic,especially those who have been teaching in those schools for many many years,decades even,i say this because they have to develop this world class patience.they have this patience that i believe can only be borned out of true love for teaching and their students.now im not saying theres a difference between the elite school students and the neighbourhood school students,both are equally wild,naughty,mischievous,playful and talkative,the elite school probably more so,but theres one fundamental difference,one characteristic that i noticed about these neighbourhood school students is the laziness that permeates every pore and every cell of these students,a laziness and sloth so thick u can almost feel it in the air,its like a general air of apathy and boh chupness and cant be bothered,and its like a sickness thats everywhere,its not like a laziness thats limited to personal or oneself,or isolated among a tiny group or a few students,it literally permeates the entire class with every little boy and every little girl,its like a contagion.u could be sitting in class one day on another boring afternoon and think,"omg what is going on here,this is futile,the level of interest is near zero,what are we all doing here,there is absolutely no learning here,the students are here they are not making any noise but they have checked out a long time ago,in fact they have probably stopped caring years and years ago,its like a cycle thats burned into them,a permanent trait,they have not learned anything for the past ten years and they are not learning anything today,everything is pointless,school is like a prison where they check in compulsory everyday and repeat the same routine of meaningless and pointless gestures of hopelessness and futility because its compulsory by law and these are the days of our lives.and the teachers u can tell they genuinely care,they desperately want to see these kids do well,graduate and have a bright future.but can u feel the futility of motivating these organisms who have laziness and low esteem and boh chup even if its the end of the world and judgement day is coming attitude molded and branded into them for years and years,how to motivate?

Please do not take it the wrong way. SAP school system is a political creature of the PAP. It was created to buy the sino-centic votes which is significant. It came from the fall-out of the merger of Nanyang University and NUS and it was created as a peace offering. MOE has a special department to select the best teachers and the grants per student is more than twice that goes to any other school. You can see by the facilities they have and the excellent quality of teachers they have. I remember that they even engaged native English speaker as teachers to raise the standard of English not that it was bad, but to beat the top schools in the non-SAP system.

Any democracy will never allow such a separate world to exist using tax payers money. I am sure the minorities resent it and understandably so and we want them to serve NS as equals to look after a system that puts them in a disadvantage. Some minority parents initially got their kids enrolled but its already hard with the language requirement.

I am not sure if you are aware that many professionals will never admit their kids into a SAP school as a matter of principle despite knowing that they have best teachers and dedicated facilities. If you step into the elite Admin Service, SAP school students will not talk about their school years as it is frowned upon. In many ways it is no different to the unfair Bumiputra policy you see up North.

frenchbriefs said:

i dunno about the older generations but i speak for the 90s and millenial generations.

iv been to a sap school and a neighbourhood school and i would say the teachers in the good schools got it the luckiest,the difference is like having good employees versus bad employees,with good employees ur job is already done,ur work is being done for u,all the have to do is teach,the transference of knowledge is automatic from teacher to student,with good students,they actually care about their grades,they are highly motivated,they actually understand the pressure upon them and feel this compulsion to perform at their highest and achieve their best.zero upkeep and very little maintenance.the teachers in the neighbourhood school though are the kindest and the most benevolent and angelic,especially those who have been teaching in those schools for many many years,decades even,i say this because they have to develop this world class patience.they have this patience that i believe can only be borned out of true love for teaching and their students.now im not saying theres a difference between the elite school students and the neighbourhood school students,both are equally wild,naughty,mischievous,playful and talkative,the elite school probably more so,but theres one fundamental difference,one characteristic that i noticed about these neighbourhood school students is the laziness that permeates every pore and every cell of these students,a laziness and sloth so thick u can almost feel it in the air,its like a general air of apathy and boh chupness and cant be bothered,and its like a sickness thats everywhere,its not like a laziness thats limited to personal or oneself,or isolated among a tiny group or a few students,it literally permeates the entire class with every little boy and every little girl,its like a contagion.u could be sitting in class one day on another boring afternoon and think,"omg what is going on here,this is futile,the level of interest is near zero,what are we all doing here,there is absolutely no learning here,the students are here they are not making any noise but they have checked out a long time ago,in fact they have probably stopped caring years and years ago,its like a cycle thats burned into them,a permanent trait,they have not learned anything for the past ten years and they are not learning anything today,everything is pointless,school is like a prison where they check in compulsory everyday and repeat the same routine of meaningless and pointless gestures of hopelessness and futility because its compulsory by law and these are the days of our lives.and the teachers u can tell they genuinely care,they desperately want to see these kids do well,graduate and have a bright future.but can u feel the futility of motivating these organisms who have laziness and low esteem and boh chup even if its the end of the world and judgement day is coming attitude molded and branded into them for years and years,how to motivate?

Click to expand...

scroobal said:

Sounds like every class that I attended during my schooling days. Only things missing are caning, suspensions, calling your parents and going to the principal's office.

Click to expand...

Dunno, are we having too soft people these days? I had to stand on a chalk marked ring, chalk in the mouth ( for talking while teacher is teaching), got knuckes dusted with ruler by che gu during Malay Class & text book thrown out of class, during Chinese lessons ( we were trilingual) & it is common for getting , "six of the best" by the teachers..for sometimes, we are just plain rascals...


We never complained to our parents....

halsey02 said:

Dunno, are we having too soft people these days? I had to stand on a chalk marked ring, chalk in the mouth ( for talking while teacher is teaching), got knuckes dusted with ruler by che gu during Malay Class & text book thrown out of class, during Chinese lessons ( we were trilingual) & it is common for getting , "six of the best" by the teachers..for sometimes, we are just plain rascals...


We never complained to our parents....

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if complain to parents, they will call up the school and ask the teacher what happened. then they will apologise to the teacher, come back and kana whack again 2nd time by them

How Cum when PAP whack and discipline the 70% Sinkies they all just lan lan like mouse.

scroobal said:

Sounds like every class that I attended during my schooling days. Only things missing are caning, suspensions, calling your parents and going to the principal's office.

Click to expand...

Wee Moh Nam threw a whole pile of exercise books in my face. It injured my neck.

However it made me scared shitless of him and I did my math homework diligently after that.

Had I told my dad he would have thrown more stuff at me.

Extreme left front row (seated)

I remember the language teachers were the toughest and understandably so as holding the class' attention for a boring subject was a real challenge. I never in all my life ever heard a classmate say he enjoyed going to his second language class. There was lot of moaning and suffering.

halsey02 said:

Dunno, are we having too soft people these days? I had to stand on a chalk marked ring, chalk in the mouth ( for talking while teacher is teaching), got knuckes dusted with ruler by che gu during Malay Class & text book thrown out of class, during Chinese lessons ( we were trilingual) & it is common for getting , "six of the best" by the teachers..for sometimes, we are just plain rascals...


We never complained to our parents....

Click to expand...