The
‘Caring Teacher awards’ are aimed at acknowledging and rewarding those
teachers in Singapore schools who, through their daily deeds and actions,
exemplify the values of caring, sharing, and concern for the academic, moral,
social, emotional, and mental welfare of their students.
Jointly
organised by Esso and the National Institute of Education (NIE), with the
support of the Ministry of Education (MOE), these awards were be presented on
July 12, 2000. Two primary and two secondary teachers and one
pre-university/junior college teacher received the awards. These awards will be
used for the teachers' professional development.
Recipients
of the award demonstrate exemplary character, initiative, integrity, altruism,
and a proven record of service to their schools and students. While effective
teaching and the production of excellent examination results was considered, the
emphasis of the awards is on the humanistic qualities of the teaching
profession.
Selection
will be based on nominations from any member of the public, including
principals, teachers, and pupils. A panel of judges for final selection will
interview shortlisted candidates.
Mrs
Tan Aye Leng, who had been teaching at the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ)
in Toa Payoh for about 29 years, was one such recipient of this award this year.
Miss Seema Prakash, 17, a former student at CHIJ, nominated her for the award
together with the Head of Department (HOD) for Science, Mrs Jennifer Chu. The
Catholic News spoke to Sr Anne Wong (principal of CHIJ Toa Payoh), Miss Seema
and Mrs Tan together with some of her present pupils, Ms Suzanne Seah, 14, of
Sec 2/1 and Ms Nur Hazwani, 14 of Sec 2/2, on her receiving this award. Miss
Seema will be leaving for Norway to study the International Baccalaureate at the
United World College.
CN:
Ms Seema, why did you nominate Mrs Tan for this award?
Seema:
Definitely I think Mrs Tan has been one of the major influences in my life,
second to CHIJ. She’s always willing to help others, and her help isn’t
restricted to those who are academically bright, or the more popular girls, but
she helps everyone, and anyone who needs help. She’s also been my mentor in my
4 years here, and I remember once when I thanked Mrs Tan for all that she had
done for me, she said, ‘Don’t thank me, don’t feel that you ever have to
repay me, just pass the kindness on,’ and that impacted me a lot. The major
reason why I nominated Mrs Tan was that she doesn’t see all this as going out
of her way to help others, but a very natural thing to help others.
CN:
You mentioned that Mrs Tan was your mentor in your 4 years in CHIJ. How far has
she helped you outside of academic work?
Seema:
Mrs Tan was my form teacher in Secondary 2, but her influence on my life
didn’t end there. Over next few years, whenever I need to help or talk to
someone, I always went to her.
CN:
Mrs Tan, what do you enjoy most teaching in CHIJ?
Mrs
Tan: The girls. (smiles) Different girls with different capabilities,
backgrounds, and well, some with problems. Above all, we have very good
fellowship amongst the staff.
CN:
What made you think are your abilities or characteristics that made you the
caring teacher you were awarded for?
Seema:
I think ‘initiative’ features prominently among them.
Mrs
Tan: I feel that everybody should be helped, if he or she is in difficulties,
whether financially or emotionally. It is the ones who have emotional troubles
that are very difficult to help, because you need to gain the confidence of the
students.
CN:
I understand that there is a counselling program in CHIJ. Are you involved with
that?
Mrs
Tan: Every teacher is supposed to be a counsellor…
Seema:
… and many teachers have counselled me at many a time…
Mrs
Tan: … but the girls will pick and choose whom they want. Some can relate
better to you, some just can’t.
CN:
Are you Catholic? Which church do you attend?
Mrs
Tan: I’m not a Catholic, I’m a Christian, but I have been a Catholic
environment for a long time, and I was educated in an IJ school (St Joseph’s
Convent). I’m a Presbyterian, but am attending the Trinity Methodist Church.
CN:
Is there anything that you don’t like about teaching in your 29 years here in
CHIJ?
Mrs
Tan: I think it’s the other things we have to do (other than teaching), like
the administrative work, the forms we have to fill in, it’s just redundant
work, because the same information is filled in many times over.
CN:
Do you have any memorable moments in CHIJ?
Mrs
Tan: The latest one is when my students of 83/84 sent me a huge floral basket
after watching the award presentation on TV.
CN:
After being in a Catholic environment for so long, have you ever thought of
being Catholic yourself?
Mrs
Tan: No. I think the belief is basically the same, a belief in God. I think it
is the form of worship that is different. I may differ a little in theology, but
I will not become a Catholic basically because my grandfather was a Presbyterian
pastor. That’s my main reason, although I go to all the Masses in school.
CN:
How did you feel when you got the award?
Mrs
Tan: My first thought was, ‘How am I going to live up to this award?’
(laughs) Well, I was happy, because I didn’t know that they nominated me. I
knew only after the interview, but after that I heard nothing, until more than a
month later when Sister (Anne Wong) told me one morning when I was going for the
school assembly.
CN:
A lot of students find you very strict, so do you find a conflict to being
strict and caring?
Mrs
Tan: I don’t think there is a conflict. Being kind doesn’t mean that you
have to give in to the girls all the time, because they don’t understand that
what they have done is wrong. So, by being strict, they will only see the
results later on in life.
Seema:
I think being strict is a part of being caring, because you will want to correct
that person when they are wrong.
CN:
Do you have any comments on the issue of the 6 CHIJ girls being arrested for
drugs?
Mrs
Tan: I think we did the right thing, because we nipped the problem in the bud.
If we don’t do that, I’m sure it will spread to the other girls. I think Sr
Anne did the right thing to report them (to the police). It is good that they
are caught in school, because if they were caught outside, they would be in
bigger trouble.
CN:
If you had a chance to counsel them, what would you say?
Mrs
Tan: We have already counselled a lot of them. I know 2 of them personally,
because I’ve taught them. I hope they have learnt their lesson, and that they
would walk the straight path from now on. They are still young, so they can
definitely change. I’m sure by now they know what they have done is wrong,
hopefully. I think people should not judge us on the basis of those 6 girls,
because 6 girls are a very small percentage of the school. We should look after
the majority, and that is what we did, when we reported them to the police.
CN:
Suzanne and Nur, how do you feel about Mrs Tan receiving the award?
Suzanne:
To me, she is like a mother to everybody in the school. She always cares for us,
and she makes sure that every single one of us understands her lessons.
Nur:
When a teacher is strict, it means that the teacher cares, and that she wants
you to be successful in school, and get everything right. Some people might get
it the wrong way, like she’s ‘evil’, but from what I know that most
teachers are very caring, and their strictness shows that they care for us.
Mrs
Tan: It is easy for us to walk away when they (the pupils) have done something
wrong, to be popular. But you spend more time and effort counselling them, and
being strict with them, and going after them.
CN:
Can you cite any examples of how Mrs Tan has helped you in your academic work or
otherwise?
Suzanne:
In the past, I have had teachers who didn’t seem to bother very much when I
had a question. But for Mrs Tan, each time I had any query at all, now matter
how stupid it many seem, she would just answer, so she’s really understanding.
Nur:
Whenever she explains something in class, and some people don’t get it, she
still explains it again fully.
CN:
Sr Anne, how did you feel about Mrs Tan getting this award? Has she been
outstanding in her work?
Sr
Anne: It is not in just for one year that she had been demonstrating all these
qualities of caring and challenging every student that she has been assigned to
teach. It is a very sustained record, and in her own words, she represents the (CHIJ)
group of teachers, all of whom are very deserving, except that you can’t give
it to everybody, so you have to make a selection. The selection was not done by
the school, but by the MOE working in collaboration with NIE. The HOD of Science
nominated her and I endorsed the nomination.
CN:
I understand that Mrs Tan is not Catholic. Has this been a problem for her
working in CHIJ Toa Payoh?
Sr
Anne: No. It has never been a problem, because I think religion, is anything,
unites rather than divides, because God is universal. We may worship
differently, we may say different prayers in different ways, but we are still
addressing the same one Almighty God who is our Creator. No one religion can be
so arrogant as to say God is for them and not for somebody else. Mrs Tan Aye
Leng has been able to imbibe the school culture of giving priority to pastoral
care. Whether she is given a top class, or a class that is academically weak,
her caring and sense of mission has always been there. And this is what makes
her unique, because some people are good only with certain kind of students, but
she is able to extend to them, regardless of race, language, religion or
academic ability. So in that sense, she is an educator with a deep sense of
mission, for she shares the IJ vision that every child deserves our best.
CN:
As an educator yourself for so many years, what do you think makes a caring
teacher?
Sr
Anne: A deep sense of mission, and of hope. It is dedication to mission that
makes the difference between schools and educators.
CN:
So what is the mission?
Sr
Anne: The mission is the dedication to the realisation of vision. The vision of
a society, child or school may change over a period of time. For example, when
the convent was founded, we looked after orphans. We fed and clothed them, we
made sure they had shoes and books and we sent them to school. So those were
actually basic needs. The child of today, especially the Singaporean child, has
lots of these things already. So what can we offer them? We have to offer them
faith in themselves, hope that they have a future to walk towards. They don’t
walk towards that future alone, it is always within a group, whether that group
be their family, classmates or ECA mates in partnership with a significant
adult. Where the school is concerned, that significant adult is the teacher.
with
the support of the Ministry of Education
This article appeared edited in the August 6 2000 edition of The Catholic News.