Can you hear me?

I used to think that teachers, lecturers and educators alike were only people who came into our lives to teach, and do nothing else. However, I was proved wrong by my Primary one (she was with me till primary six. Always checking up on me), three (both of them), four and five teachers (yeah, Primary school life was pretty awesome for me). And not to forget, one of my lecturers in this course that I am attending.

They not only taught me the right from wrong, but strengthened on my values and beliefs, and gave me a whole new picture to expect out of Life. They made me want to be just like them, for the things they do (whether they're proud of it or not) inspire and motivate me. They believed in my dreams and most importantly, believed in me.

They were more than teachers to me. They were able to relate to the things that I was feeling and going through, and could simply read off of me without me having to say a single word. Some may feel that parents are ones who shape up a child, for they are like guardians and pillars of support. These teachers to me, are like the many guardians and pillars of support in my life.


However, unlike parents, teachers aren't there to accompany you as you grow and mature. But the funny thing is, their words will always stay in your head.

Au Revoir

Once the invigilator asked us to put down our pen and hand up our paper, it seemed as though a huge load was lifted off my shoulders.

Though we had no idea on what to do immediately after our papers, my friends and I were pretty glad that the GCE 'O' level Examinations are finally over for us.

We heaved huge sighs of relief and sadness as we walked past the familiar buildings one last time. That moment was like a nostalgia for our school days, for the fun, sad, boring, angry and memorable times we had and shared.



I don't usually put names of teachers in this blog, for fear of being hunted down by them. Hahah. But today's post is entirely dedicated to them, and the non-teaching staffs, including the vendors. Because it's not only the teachers who teach us, but the other working adults there as well, who teach us things that textbooks do not teach. Let's just term all of them at Teachers.





Dear Teachers,

I would really love to thank you for all the time, effort and concern you put in and had for us. What I love about the teachers in this school, is that they not only educate us for the sake of our major examinations, but also for the sake of our well-being. All of you taught stuff that books did not have, and that was to be a good, smart, and responsible person. You taught us things like Respect, Independence, Resilience, Responsibility and even enabled us to built our self esteem as well as place ourselves as Winners In Life. You taught us how to make quick yet responsible decisions in Life, as well as motivated us to study (thanks to Mrs Kok for the "I'm Gifted So Are You" workshop conducted by Adam Khoo and his colleagues). Despite having your schedule packed with workload and family, many teachers gave up their time for us, and came forth to help the graduating students in every way possible. They even wished us well (on the Apple Tree). It was really touching to see these teachers give their all for us, despite not being related to us at all. I guess our school really proved that we are ONE BIG FAMILY after all.

Thank you so much for the all the patience, guidance, respect, perseverance and definitely the willingness to educate us and pass on all your knowledge to us.

All this have indeed inspired me to take on similar roles as you. I still do think that the students of the school aren't the WRStars. I think the staffs deserve this title more than we students do!

Goodbye Teachers, Goodbye Staffs, Goodbye Friends, Goodbye School!

Please give US a break.

I love reading the New Paper. (even though teachers encourage us to read the Straits Times more often, because the format of New Paper is more of a Singlish paper than straits times.) I personally feel that the New Paper, although lack the amount of news around the world, is more interesting to read, mainly because it caters to the needs of youths nowadays because most of us are only interested, more like KPO in only the latest buzz that may affect us(in a hip,cool approach). No offense, but I think that the New Paper isn't as boring as the other papers.

Anyway, I'll always skim through the papers, only stopping at pages that catches my attention. And one of the pages did. It's an article done by one of my favorite news editors, Mr Santokh Singh(father figures).

He wrote an article about pressurizing school has become with all the school holidays used as for remedial classes, Community Involvement Programmes (CIP) and even CCAs.

I couldn't stop nodding in agreement at every paragraph that was there. If the article had been any longer, I would have suffered strains on my neck muscle.

Anyway, here's my point of view.

I agree with Mr Santokh that MOE did include these school breaks to practically give EVERYONE a break, and this means that students like me, get a chance to relief myself from both stressful school time-tables and attending any extra classes.

It's because if these make-up lessons during the holidays, that causes my family to have to cancel the holiday plans. And I definitely think it's not fair. Where did the importance of family bonding go? Are school and results more important than family?

I know most of you would say " Aiyah, so easy, skip school lah. It's your choice what."

Although it sounds easy, it is actually harder to do it.

Teachers have often said that Choices have consequences, and that our decision to skip lessons is our choice because in the end, its our results.
But when we do skip their lessons, they rant on and on about how unappreciated they feel about their efforts to help us. Teachers always say that if they are willing to plan for the lessons, sacrifice their holiday plans to conduct lessons, then why can't we students appreciate it, and at least attend it?

Teachers have this manipulative way of making us students feel guilty whenever we skip their classes. But I don't blame them.

Principals definitely want their school to rise up to fame, especially Academic wise. But they often twist their words, into saying that the reason why they're pushing us, isn't because they want fame, but because they want us to excel.

But isn't it a little ironic? We excel so that we can bring ourselves and the school to fame isn't it?


But I don't blame the Principals though, especially my school's principal because she never fail to find ways to help us excel. With Adam Khoo workshops and talks by Dr. William Tan and more. I have feeling that she REALLY wants us to succeed.

And it boils down to MOE.

MOE is the one who is responsible for the syllabus and things that we learn in school. Knowing that schools always have insufficient time to complete all the syllabus for the graduating students, why do they still add more chapters into the books then? Is the MOE trying to compete with the increasing science technologies? Why are they pushing us so hard? Secondary 4s are learning A' levels work now, so when we go to poly or JC, are we expected to learn U stuff?
Are we going to increase it constantly, that 10 years down the road, you'll see K2s learning Geometry and Matrices?

So much for increasing the retiring age when most of the elderly would still be jobless because employers now seek for academic levels and not experience.

I'm sure with the growing population, there would be tonnes of jobs made available, but let's not forget the flow of foreigners coming to Singapore. Will Singaporeans themselves lose out in the race?

Why can't we be like some parts of Australia, where they don't offer examinations to students? Isn't this a better way for job applicants to get jobs through what they know and what they can do, and not by their leaving certificates? Wouldn't this give the elderlies opportunities to get jobs as well?

After all, the exams are to be blamed for students committing suicide because of poor results and stress. It's because of exams, thats why students are competing for better results. True, we want Singapore to become a flawless country, with others envying us. But I feel that it's too pressurizing for students, teachers, principals, and even parents.


WE ALL NEED A BREAK.



*This post is to state how I feel. A teacher once said, "Don't blame others for what has happened. Wonder who you should blame? Find the last two letters of blame, and it reads ME. Blame yourself".

But if we continue to blame ourselves for everything, especially the stressful workload from school, the later generations would definitely suffer depression, seriously.