Amidst all the hubbub about how teachers here are having a particularly hard time coping with their demanding jobs, one bold soul stepped out of the mainstream by declaring that extended working hours are part of their required “service”.
As in, she’s saying that parents want the “best service” for their children — and thus school staff should put in extra effort in their jobs. According to Lee Wei Yin in her forum letter to The Straits Times, treating teachers like actual humans in need of rest is “unrealistic, from a service and practical standpoint”.
The saga originated in an earlier forum letter, in which Tay Lee Chuan called for the Ministry of Education (MOE) to control teachers’ working hours. A fair suggestion, considering most teachers here work at least 12 hours a day, and often get called back for duty (without overtime pay or time off in lieu, mind you) on weekends and holidays.
“This would prevent teachers from being overworked and leaving the service due to burn-out,” she wrote, in reference to their recently revealed exodus from the service.
Nay, said Lee in her reply to Tay’s proposal. Claiming to be a grassroots leader, she insisted that the school is providing a service — where the students and parents are “customers” — and it’s perfectly acceptable (and required) for teachers to work beyond normal working hours. She suggested instead that MOE obtain more teachers, cut class size and share the work load.
That did not go down well. At all.
The first high-profile volley at Lee’s proposal came from the blogfather himself, MrBrown. Speaking as a son of a former teacher of 40 years, the blogger deconstructed Lee’s letter and rebutted each of her points, highlighting how schools and teachers shouldn’t be expected to bend over backwards to accommodate schedules.
“Who would want to join the education sector where parents treat schools like they are the customer? And you think good teachers grow on trees?” he wrote of the Lee’s proposal, where he found the sense of entitlement “astounding”.
Then there’s yet another forum letter sent in to The Straits Times — again a rebuttal of Lee’s controversial sentiments.
Expressing her “aghast” at Lee’s comments, Wendy Yuen Woon Yoke asserted that schools aren’t service centres, and that teachers do not serve students or their parents.
Like MrBrown, she disagreed that schools shouldn’t be accommodating to parents’ schedules, and that those who aren’t concerned enough to take a day off work to attend parent-teacher meetings need to do some “serious soul-searching”. Furthermore, the suggestion to cut class sizes to share the work load doesn’t work as well, as it ignores the already limited resources and facilities of schools.
“Teachers and principals deserve their rest too, just like everyone else,” Yuen wrote, before she dropped the proverbial mic.
