As a husband to a kindergarten teacher, Ismail Tahir would know first-hand the trials and tribulations his wife has gone through for the past six years in her profession.
In a lengthy Facebook post, he responded to the negative sentiments some parents and early childhood education higher-ups have about the teachers: that they’re not doing enough. In Ismail’s experience, his wife — and so many other kindergarten teachers — are doing way more than what’s required of them. Many, many sacrifices have been made, writes Ismail, and he wants to shine a light on the little-known challenges early childhood educators face daily.
We’ve taken bits of his discourse below, but be sure to read his entire illuminating post here.
On meager meals
“I’m a husband to an early childhood educator, and to think that these teachers have good welfare at work, I think twice when she takes a photo of what she eats for lunch and it’s a small portion of what the kids ate.
They don’t have time to go out for lunch because the kids will be awake at any moment. They can’t eat more for lunch if they happen to be a little hungry on that day because they’re too afraid that the kids will not have enough, so therefore the cooking aunty portions the food out for the teachers. Can you imagine that?! I’d give my wife the most lavish of food, whatever she wants to eat because, when she’s at work, that’s the type of food she’ll be eating, food meant for small children.”
On the work-life balance
“I’m a husband to an early childhood educator, and a lot of the nights she comes home late because she’s either doing up her classroom just for curriculum or an irresponsible parent decided to pick their kids up late and spoil our evening plans.
I’m a husband to an early childhood educator, and my wife brings home administrative and curriculum work. Why? Because of her job descriptions, she barely has the time to do it at school during her working hours because she takes care of the children most of the time. They don’t even have their own time for lunch, what more for their admin work? So I see my bed as a second office for my wife.
I’m a husband to an early childhood educator, and sometimes some Saturdays are sacrificed from family time because those days are the only ones when all teachers are free for meetings. So instead on spending the weekends with the family, these teachers spend their Saturdays at work, filled with meetings!”
On dealing with management and parents
“I’m a husband to an early childhood educator, and my wife comes back home sad or emotionally affected because her Management imposed so many rules and regulations. Imposed unnecessary restrictions that makes it even more difficult for them to be flexible at work.
I’m a husband to an early childhood educator and my wife comes home affected because she got hurled with unwanted comments from parents who are just plain unreasonable. Because the parents had a long hard day at work and who else better than to vent their anger at than the poor childhood educator that has been taking care of their kids since they dropped them off at school at 7am.”
On the needs of the children
“I’m a husband to an early childhood educator, and sometimes my house becomes a recyling centre because there are recycled materials EVERYWHERE and they’re used to create new crafts for lessons, or designs for classroom. And here I am thinking to myself, “why are there stacks of bottles and materials..so messy!” but then I realised that these “scraps” I see are the same very materials used in the classroom that you think is beautifully decorated. Don’t you know that all that was handmade by the teachers, just for your children?!
I’m a husband to an early childhood educator and my storeroom is like a mini Popular Bookstore. Dear parents, whatever you can find in Popular Bookstore, I’ll probably have it. Scanner, printers, cutting materials, laminating machines, files, stationaries, hole punchers, tapes, pens, markers, educational books, coloured papers, twines, paints, brushes… you name it… i’ll probably have it. And you know why? Because all these are needed just for your children. For their classrooms, their learning corners, for their crafty lessons.
Do you think all these materials are all in the school? NO! Because they are bought using the teachers own money because there’s always a lack of budget, and the claiming process is oh so lengthy. And oh, it’s in my storeroom because there’s literally no space in the centres. Either there’s no space or my wife will find these items missing the next day when she want to use them because colleagues “borrow” these items, that they bought using their money without asking for permission.”
