I REFER to the articles, 'Next step for schools' and 'Need to rebalance school system: Eng Hen' (Aug 15).

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What are the roles of teachers in schools?

To ingrain good values of character building in the kids, isn't it?

If this is not put first then knowledge on them will be a lost cause as more spoilt brats and social misfits [starting to be bullies in schools] will do more harm than good in society creating tension and hurting others affecting the happiness of others selfishly when they come out to work in society, isn't it?

They become a liability rather than an asset, isn't it? Some ended up drugged and jaded. Some are drugged even though they are not bum or stupid from young and they come from all races and family background, rich and poor, isn't it?

Is that education?

PM and MOE Ng. Pls pick up the phone and call the NZ PM.

Ask her. What tested programmes she is using in her NZ schools to ingrain the good GP values of character building in the kids from a young age?

What are GP values? Ask her.

Do more for teachers, do more for the poor, do more working mums, do more for opposition, do more for hawkers, do more for taxi drivers, do more for bus drivers... when will someone do more for *ME*!

The govt will always do more to tax us. Give me more.

It starts within the self. The true self.

Ms Koh,

As a former teacher who is thinking about going into full-tme tutoring, I am shocked by your suggestion. Firstly, banning tuition agencies, which you advocate, will mean wiping out a completely decent business, which translates into destroying the rice bowls of many people.

Secondly, you mentioned that banning tuition would show whether school teachers are competent or not. Please be very clear about one thing. Education is not about showing whether school teachers are competent. It is about moulding our young. If students are weak at their studies and truly need tuition, are you going to deny them any tuition just so that school teachers' competence or incompetence can be shown? Students' future is at stake here.

Furthermore, you are mistaken if you think that more would become teachers if tutoring did not exist. The perks offered by MOE might lure some people into the profession, but not all. Some would rather not choose to teach in schools as full time teachers, because of the politics and the wayang(ie. pretence) in schools.

You said: "banning tuition agencies and tutors altogether"
What silly ideas Ms Koh. We don't live in a police state. People are free to choose the tuition route if they want to.

Like I said before, the reason why tuition is needed is because the students go to school to be made use of by the principals and MOE officials to push their 'initiatives' or to get the schol to participate in a big event.

Every now and then, the students have to participate in a new 'initiatives' and the teacher get involved in it too. How to study properly! Wonder if the principals and MOE officials are interested in the students or in pushing their 'initiatives'.

When my children were in school there were so many times when they got caught in them and wasted a whole lot of time so that the principal could scratch one more 'achievement' into her annual report.

When the school decided to participate in one Youth Festival event, they spent an unimaginable time after school time doing the rehersals. Wonder who actually benefitted from organising that stupid event.

Then the school was aslo invilved in a whole lot of National Education stuff and the number of projects they were aked to put up took up more time than the time they spent on their academic work. Every now and then, Racial Harmony Day, Total Defence Day, even one called International Friendship Day.. they would have to spend heaps of time doing up one project after another. Then I heard the school got an award (something called LKY Award). Wah! must be a damn great award if it is really named after MM, no wonder the principal and superintendant were prepared to trash all the teachers and students to chase for it. I heard the principal and area superintendant got promoted the next year.

There were so many. For example there were a few years when the school went mad about something called I&E (teaching students how to do business!). Real mad. The students were forced to attend lessons on entrepreneruship! Imagine that! Paid for from their Edusave fund, i.e. the school gets a name for running a certain programme and the students have to pay for it. And they were forced to put up Powerpoint presentations, and run stalls to sell things.

Watch out when your children are in Secondary Three. That the year when the school get them involved in all kinds of crap. Becasue it the 'non exam year'.

But if they fail and do badly because of being too involved in all these nonsense, don't expect the school to show mercy. Because the school then wants to make sure than they are not going up to Sec 4 becaue if they take the exam, they might pull down the schools average score (something called MSG).

When they are in Sec 4 , during meet the parents evening, the principal will change her song. No more talking about how participating in all the extra crap is good for character building. She just keep singing MSG, MSG.

Bloody dirty schools and MOE!

What Mdm Josephine Koh has suggested is definitely unrealistic. She assumes that the money saved from tuition (if tuition is really banned like she wishes) will translate into greater benefits for schoolchildren and their teachers.

There are several questions she has to consider. Are Singaporean taxpayers willing to pay more to contribute towards teachers' improved salaries? Won't they say something along the lines of, "Why are we paying them more to do less?"

Will Singaporean parents complain that each teacher only sees the class for a particular subject, so there is lack of communication between teachers and their child's development cannot be tracked?

Mdm Koh also says, "Former tutors who are good at teaching can then consider becoming full-time teachers as teaching will be more attractive with better pay and perks". This merely shows how ignorant she is of the situation. School teachers are turning to tuition because it is more lucrative and the hours are flexible. Also, tuition may be a luxury in her opinion, but to some weaker students it is a necessity. Is she going to deprive these children of a chance to do better in school?

I do not belive that MOE is going to resort to such drastic measures just to be able to take credit for the success of our education system, though perhaps if Mdm Koh was in charge, she might, what with her passion and idealistic goals.

While it would indeed be ideal to increase the salaries of teachers, it is unfortunately necessary to consider the extra financial burden this would place on parents. Currently, from what I know, the school fees that students from independent schools have to pay is already not cheap. While we have to recognize our teachers and pay them at least what they deserve, we also have to think about how much parents are willing, and able, to give. The situation you proposed is simply too idealistic, for our resources are always finite.

On the point of banning tuition, not all parents force their students to take tuition just because they do not have confidence in the school. It's not like everyone has such money to spare. In schools, students progress in their learning together with their peers, as a class. Only when they fall behind in a particular subject do they need to seek extra help - and tutors offer them just that. Teachers are human too, and we cannot say that just because their students are in need of help, they are being incompetent. After all, teachers have to work towards the collective well-being of their students, whereas tutors can afford to focus solely on their tutorees. Thus, tutoring is in fact in a completely different context from teaching, and we ought not to force the two together.