Real reason behind Singapore’s obsession with tuition
-
autumnbronze:
The key point is.. potential \"conflict of interest\".
Moonlight here on the basis of earning additional income, not so much moonlighting in/within the same profession.
Anyway, many companies disallow moonlighting too, even for different industries like what you say.. whether they enforce or not, that is not relevant here, at this moment.
If teacher moonlight on the sly.. we cannot fault MOE for the policies.
But if MOE doesn't disallow moonlighting.. then, it is MOE's fault, right? -
SAHM_TAN:
Maybe the teachers who gave tuition are not subject heads, HODs, level heads. The teachers who gave tuition could be those with less duties or the condemn ones
Those who give tuition could be the adjunct ones (not full fledge). These are the ones who rather take 1/2 pay so as to know what's happening in school but earn a lot more giving tuition. I had one such tutor then. She has tuition back to back. -
autumnbronze:
:goodpost: :rahrah: :rahrah:I am trying to get a sense of logic in this discussion thread. Forgive me if I come across as daft.
On one hand, I get the impression that teachers are paid well.
On the other hand, they are not.
But it is the curse of the moonlighting bug that is deterring them from doing their real job in school and compelling them to quit because they are laid tons more ....
So teachers should not be allowed to moonlight as tutors??
Are you kidding me?
This discussion is detracting from the REAL reason why teachers quit.
1. Weekends wasted from 9am to 6pm accompanying kids to NDP parade practice for weeks on end when they can better spend the time preparing for lessons. Newbie teachers are especially targeted for this kind of extra
curricular activities, so in effect, these teacher's 'bubble' of wanting to make a significant change in their pupils' lives are shattered within the first year of stepping into the schools they are posted to.
2. Attending rubbish meetings from 2pm to as long as 7pm, or in house
sharing sessions or courses when information can easily be disseminated
online.
3. The 100hr quota that they must fulfill attending courses.
4. Taking on additional duties outside of curriculum hrs or holidays eg accompanying kids for CCA if it is out of school, competitions, preparing pupils for inter-school seminars or presentations or school events. The grander the better.
5. Having your proposals to improve the in house curriculum structure
turned down time and again by superiors because they are comfortably ensconced in their comfort zone.
6. Holidays taken up due to exam prep for kids eg 'O' level or o erseas field trips due to competitions etc.
7. Marking, marking and more marking of course.
8. Fulfilling of rubbish KPIs.
9. Other roles they have to take on for instance mentorship to kids which means scheduling meetings after curriculum time to discuss issues.
And more lah ... can add on, need to think somemore .....
If teachers should be banned from moonlighting, then so should all others in various other line of jobs or profession. Why should teachers' personal life
be impinged upon just because of a few bad apples? Yes, I want to qualify that there are some wet blankets in this profession, just like in any other profession, and cringe when I hear of them being given credit when it is NOT due to them.
:idea: Perhaps there are teachers who took loans to study and had to, not want to, moonlight in order to pay off the loans? That is just one example. There could be many other valid reasons.
And anyone, I am very sure of this, who is in the civil service and not a
scholar or have good honors degree, will attest to the fact that the pay increment and promotional prospects can be marginal, for obvious reasons.
You want good teachers? Then interview sessions should be even more stringent. Course contents/curriculum or disciplinary advice towards students to trainees can be re-vamped/re-structured.
One has to move with the times .....
Ok, just some of my thoughts here. My boys are sleeping, so log in here
lor ....
Am I :offtopic: now :?
Or maybe I am treading on dangerous waters here ....
Better :siam: before I kena :torchme:
I have been WAITING for AutumnBronze to post this. I wondered what took her so long to say her piece. From her online presence and her posts in English Literature, she's prolly a Lit Teacher I would buy flowers for every year for years after I've graduated. The heart is in the right place. There is kindness and there is love for young lives.
So why did she quit?
Teaching is a nurturing job. Teachable moments don't appear according to plan (and in a syllabus), ESPECIALLY if you are thinking of SPIRIT/SOUL as well as the mind. Teachers need to have SLACK to watch... to wait... to think... to feel... to empathise... so that they can love and love at the right Teachable Moment.
AS a Mother I watch and wait a great deal. What more a Teacher?
Teaching is a creative job. Every child is different. The key to unlock the child is to be re-discovered with every new student... and even to be rediscovered with the same student at different times. You CANNOT create under pressure. Each child is a fascinating math problem sum. In itself, Teaching is a fulfilling job. I've done 30+ Motivation Workshops for free... each session made me happy. I made a difference to people. It feels D*** good.
I went to NDP one year and a P1 boy was yelling and struggling in the seat behind me when the 21 gun salute began. His Mother berated him loudly and shook him hard. I turned around and laid firm and gentle hands on the boy's back and then I held his shoulders gently and leaned forwards into his ear and said \"You're scared. I am scared too.\" He turned right around, put his arms around me and gripped my neck with his arms. I cupped my hands about his ears and we both sat through the horrendous noise. His Mother thought I was some magician because they were complete strangers to me. In turn, I was filled with great pride and great joy. I was not paid but I would do that again and again.
My MIL was a Teacher in a kampong school. She told me with pride how she visited families in the pig farms and how she felt empowered to make a difference to these barefoot kids. As little as 17 years ago, I ran a Visioning Workshop for a school. I got the Teachers to share THE experience that most defined their profession. One Teacher shared the story of a child she helped to get out of jail. True story... and NOT the ONLY one. The teaching job has its own rewards which the current system has completely taken away and replaced with money and promotion tied to KPIs. People feel good when they have autonomy through the day to watch for opportunities to make that they can freely choose to fulfill. People feel good when they do something good.
Many Teachers in the past were happy to be Teachers all their lives... doing the same thing with generations of children. They worked in the mornings and had time for their families. Many Mothers (those who are best positioned to be nurturing) nurtured other people's kids along with their own.
Then someone thought that they should work Teachers harder... get more work out of them. This took away breathing time... thinking time... feeling time... and the Nurturers could no longer nurture because they got sucked into the race ... and no longer stayed apart, giving their lives to help other lives bloom and flower.
I know Teachers from TLL. The best ones go to the centre ONLY if they have class. No other duties expected. Their entire focus was to nurture the kids... and their own. Many mothers would not mind less pay IF the work allowed them space to BREATHE and to BE NURTURING and in the NURTURING to feel joy and fulfillment.
A few of my teachers in the past were married to very successful men. They didn't need money nor career. They wanted a fulfilling job that paid enough... and they taught until they died with us students clustered around the bed crying our eyes out. With Rubbish KPIs, Teachers are all KPI focused.
How to be student-centric like that?
The inability to make a difference AND the disappearance of autonomy (everyone is imprisoned by a set of KPIs) completely changed the Teaching culture. It began to be one permeated with aggressive go-getting spirit yang energy) instead of the calm and passive softness so necessary for nurturing (yin energy). Is it any wonder that in an aggressive yang energy culture... testosterone production hit peaks (think all the sexual pecadilloes we've been seeing in MOE. Testosterone defines sexual drive you know. When you win a BATTLE, the male body produces higher levels of testosterone. When you LOVE a child back to good behavior, you produce endorphins.
Good Teachers like AutumnBronze, still teach in KSP for FREE. I actually read AB's tips on Literature (so scared I am that Little Boy's secondary school will do Teach Less Learn More). But she left the Teaching Service, which PAID her.
Explain that.
I can make $250/hr as an Executive Coach and now spend my days writing emails, filling out spreadsheets and making copies. There is no way parents will pay $250/hr for parent coaching. I earn less... but I am happy. Really happy. So happy that my husband commented on it last night.
For people like AB, it ain't the money. It's MUCH more than that. We need more Mothers in teaching... and when we get these Mothers, we must allow them the space to mother their own kids AND other people's the way they see fit without requiring so much else (like having to write all the materials they need to teach with)... then they will stay.
Then of course, many primary school Teachers really are not able to handle the standards of the PSLE simply because it tests secondary stuff!! Their domain knowledge still isn't there! So they feel doubly disadvantaged and stressed. How to care, share and nurture like that?
It's still a systemic problem in my opinion. Manage Teachers better and they would perform better. Good managers get good performance from average and below average people. There are systemic levers and mechanisms to help and strengthen weak performers. Poor managers push everything down to Teachers and keep saying \"They're not competent. They need more training.\" -
Another point. Thanks to cherryc for reminding me.
How about a D for good teaching and an A for wayang-ing during appraisal??
For those not familiar, when you get a D, chances are you are not allowed to be promoted for the next 3 or 4 years.
How’s that for incentive to stay on?? -
- deleted -
-
limlim:
Errrrr, but isn't this the point of contention here :?
Anyway, many companies disallow moonlighting too, even for different industries like what you say.. whether they enforce or not, that is not relevant here, at this moment. -
Hi Chenonceau,
My son hasn’t gone to sec school yet…so I do not know much about it.
Neighbour’s son in Sec 1 told me no more models (Math), algebra is the way to go. English is not taught…no textbook either.
1) Are primary school teachers trained to teach ?
2) Can primary school teachers equip P6 students knowledge to do well for PSLE ?
3) If the answer to both questions is YES, then why do our kids have to go for tuition ? -
limlim:
It should be being MOE teacher is tough. With the number of students they handled 40 and even more per class + so many school activities especially if your leader enjoys lot of school PR activities, CCA, competitions, visits of VIPs and so on. Who initiates these activities? Should teachers handle these activities? Management should relook into these and free the teachers to focus teaching. Those activities can be outsource to those enrichment centres. Or the other way round, leave the teachers handle all these activities and engage tuition centre teacher to teach in the school since they have a way to help our children learn effectively. Would that be more productive?Nothing is more cheap then saying \"you are not a teacher so cannot understand the difficulties of being a teacher etc etc..\"
However, I would say I'll probably jump at the opportunity if offered a teaching position years ago..
Teachers are not lowly paid.. their salary is highly competitive and better than what many MNC offers.
If being teachers is undesirable, why the MOE podium outside the interview room got no lack of applicants..
Sure..
We are not ministers so we can never understand why minister MUST be paid millions to conclude that \"no amount of engineering can prevent it\".
IF being a teacher is so TOUGH like some of the pple here say.. how can they ever afford the extra energy to moonlight? doesn't makes sense to me..
Maybe.. moonlighting helps them to \"relax\" from the stressful school activities.....
It's like saying.. do more part-time work.. it will let you relax from your full time job. -
A friend of mine is a teacher. When she was heavily pregnant, she still had to bring kids to swimming pool although there is a coach. That is understandable. She had to paint the murals on the school walls. The HOD really ‘see-her-up’ …so friend is level head etc etc etc. For CNY, she had to organise ‘lou hei’. For mooncake festival, have to organise lantern get together etc. Her early day is Monday at 4pm. The endless meetings are enough to kill. At a certain time, air con will be switched off and she has to bring the books home to mark.
-
limlim:
I must be daft again. Forgive me bro limlim. I know someone in an MNC earning X times more than a teacher leh ...
Teachers are not lowly paid.. their salary is highly competitive and better than what many MNC offers.
limlim:
Good point!If being teachers is undesirable, why the MOE podium outside the interview room got no lack of applicants..
But as mentioned, most likely, they are entering this profession totally unaware of what is unexpected out of them, only to have their 'bubble' burst not very much later. I know of someone, while undergoing his practicum, was given the best classes to teach. The school was afraid of allocating him normal academic and normal tech classes.limlim:
Another good point.IF being a teacher is so TOUGH like some of the pple here say.. how can they ever afford the extra energy to moonlight? doesn't makes sense to me..
Yet, as mentioned in the previous post, desperate situations calls for desperate measures, eg repayment of study loan or even saving for the dream marriage. I also am aware of someone who moonlighted in the past, but only during fridays and saturdays.
Now, why would anyone want to burn their weekends unneccesarily??