Tuesday, February 19, 2008
There was an article on the front page of today's The Newpaper which talked about a relief teacher of a primary school who got sacked after ridiculing a few of his pupils' (primary 3..) compositions. He actually typed out the sentences which amused (and irritated?) him just to entertain readers. He felt that even when he was their age, his standard of English wasn't "that bad", or so he claimed.
This serves as a dire warning that people in the civil service should always watch their actions and even words. There are issues and problems which are meant to be confidential even though at times, one couldn't understand why it should be considered confidential "-_-. Apart from the salaries of teachers, no one outside the stat board knows of the exact salary of those who are working at the headquarters. A friend, even after being in one of the stat boards for almost a couple of years, refuse to divulge her salary much less what she's actually doing in there.
Th relief teacher in question probably was just being playful on the spur of the moment (ok.. many moments...) since he's only 21. Not saying that what he did was right. Of course, it's never right to make fun of pupils' works. We have to bear in mind that different pupils come from different backgrounds. Some belong to the Mother-tongue speaking families, some even come from families that speak dialects. Therefore, their command of English will very likely fall short of their peers who speak English at home. Often, these pupils will also not do very well for Maths questions that involve specific instructions or word problems. Some are lucky enough to be able to catch up at least on what they are supposed to know for school because their parents care enough and of course, can afford to send them for tuition. Yet, there are sad cases whereby children are neglected by parents who have in mind, other priorities which may not involve their children at all.
All in all, we just have to be sensitive to the backgrounds and plights of different pupils and also try to help them in every way within our means.Labels: Work
Serendipity believed today at 10:44 PM
