WEDNESDAY'S report ('Caring teachers win awards') about a teacher who received the Caring Teacher Award because he accompanied students to a competition abroad, even as his wife was dying of cancer, has left me baffled.
First, no school trip is planned and executed by one teacher alone. There is always a team of teachers for safety and contingency reasons.
So how indispensable was that teacher to the trip?
Second, knowing his circumstances, shouldn't the school's principal have deployed another teacher to replace him?
Third, wasn't the safety of the students on the trip a concern when the teacher rushed back to Singapore to see his wife before she died?
Lastly, what signal is the Ministry of Education sending to teachers and the public with this award? Abandon your families for your students?
Mark Gregory Rozells
