Edvantage - New education minister tells teachers to 'take a break' during June holidays

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New education minister tells teachers to 'take a break' during June holidays

Rae Tan | The New Paper | Fri Jun 3 2011

Teachers say it is not so easy, but are happy with new Education Minister’s letter of encouragement.

New education minister tells teachers to 'take a break' during June holidays

MANY teachers were heartened after receiving a letter written personally by new Education Minister Heng Swee Keat.

Sent out last Friday via e-mail to each teacher, Mr Heng briefly introduced himself, talked about his visits to schools and urged teachers to "take a break during June to recharge (themselves)". But some teachers told The New Paper that it's not so easy to "take a break" during the school holidays.

It is understood that this is the first time an Education Minister has sent out such a letter.

Said Mr Heng in the letter: "The heart of education is our students, and it is our allied educators, school leaders and teachers who have the biggest role in nurturing them.

"Good educators inspire and touch the lives of students in profound ways."

A teacher (we are not identifying teachers because they cannot speak with the press without prior approval from their school principals) from Catholic Junior College (CJC) said: "When I saw the letter, I was pleasantly surprised. I don't remember receiving such a letter before.

"I think it really shows that Mr Heng is concerned about us. It makes us feel appreciated as teachers."

Another teacher, from Singapore Chinese Girls' School, said: "It was nice of Mr Heng to send such a letter. I think quite a few teachers recognise that he wants to reach out to us."

But while all the teachers we spoke to were grateful for Mr Heng's thoughtful gesture, some did express reservations about his suggestion that they take a break during the holidays to recharge themselves.

Impossible

Said a teacher from a JC in the east, with a laugh: "It's quite impossible to take a break sometimes. For the first two weeks of the holiday, I have three or more classes every day.

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Keywords: Teachers , Students , classes , break , holidays , Minister , education , education minister

Readers' Comments

My boss and senior management also emphasis and impose strict rules that all annual leave must be cleared and cannot be accummulated to next year.... every time apply annual leave, they will say go ahead... BUT All your work must be cleared as scheduled without affecting other colleagues..... :p :D

Posted by Small Fly on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 at 15:03 PM

If teachers are asked to take a 4 weeks break in June and another 4 weeks in Dec, isn't this better than private sector whereby we have only 14-18 days leave per year. I think it is not too demanding to request teacher to work for 2 weeks during the June holidays . Ultimately their leaves are still more than the private sector.

Ginko

Posted by Posted on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 at 18:20 PM

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