Year 2005 (Q1)

' Parents and teachers are partners in the education of children '
In what ways can parents and teachers contribute to the education of children ?

Amongst all the Asian countries, Singapore is often extolled as a world-leading economic cream of the crop and business hub. Nonetheless, in order to nuture our children into future leaders of the nation, the Singapore government have been showing the prominence in offering an all-rounded education within Singapore. Being a typical Singaporean children, one might be sick and tired of the umpteen reminders to excel in their studies and to score top in their class. In general, I think that Singaporeans should not be relying on the government in providing the best education for their children. As it takes both hands to clap, parents and teachers do play an important role in educating their children as well.

Towards education, most people will always have the notion of discerning education as one's academic performance in school. This is absolutely far from the truth. Besides shining academically, it is also essential for one to excel in his character development as well. Students with good attributes such as being courteous and polite most likely come from families with good upbringing. Thus, this makes sense to me that parents besides being a guardian, they act the role of an educator as well. In my opinion, I feel that parents do carry a heavy responsibility in their child's character development. First and foremost, parents are role models for their children to follow, every word or action may poses as an impact on their children. As parents are the ones whom the children spend most of their time with. On the other hand, moral education have been implemented as one of the subject in the cirriculum in all Primary and Secondary schools within Singapore, to impart values that can help to make their children becoming better human beings , confident and upright citizens of their country.

Due to the booming tourism and economic activities, Singapore has open her doors to welcome foreign talents to boost Singapore's economic growth as well as the declining birth rates. As such, Singaporeans have been constantly reminded to buck up and stay competitive. Thus, making learning a mundane and daunting chore to be done daily, especially for those who are weaker in their studies. In order to enable children to overcome such physical barrier, teachers should make lessons fun and enjoyable and most importantly, ensuring students to be able to cope with the pace as well as understanding important concepts at the same time. Furthermore, teachers should also squeeze in time from their busy work schedule specially for slow-learners and those weaker ones, so that they will not feel despair towards learning but rather feel that learning is a pleasure , not a burden. In addition, once every semester has ended, the school will conduct a Parent-Teacher Conference to update the student's progress and attitude in school. On the other hand, parents should supervise their children with their school work daily and to understand the difficulties that they faced during learning in order for them to set realistic goals for their children.

As the saying goes" Health is wealth." , is vital for the children to stay physically and mentally healthy in order for them to be outstanding in all aspects of education. To a large extent, parents do play an important role in maintaining their child's healthy state of mind. They should praise their children for the for the good works that they have done or scoring distinctions in their recent class tests. These might be seen as the littlest thinggs in life we may neglect, but it can actually boost the morale and self-esteem of their children to do even well. Hence, parents should not underestimate the power of such praises, it may mean a lot to a child, it do makes a difference.