Schooling through the Pandemic / Happy Teacher’s Day!

This is definitely the year that teachers are finally getting the recognition and appreciation they deserve. It took a global lockdown for parents worldwide to painfully realise the gargantuan effort teachers make on a daily basis to teach, support, engage and inspire our kids, not just in their academic learning but really in the widest sense possible. Now with all the extra demands and restrictions imposed by reopening schools amidst a pandemic, their work has become significantly more challenging. Today is Teacher’s Day in Singapore, so this month’s post and video are dedicated to our children’s wonderful teachers! We salute you.

The rhythms and routines of school life are so entrenched that when it all came to a sudden halt in April, the change was unsettling. But despite the inevitable struggles faced by many families during the month of “Home-Based Learning”, disruption to schooling in Singapore has been relatively minimal. All local schools here already run an established online study platform (called Student Learning Space) which pupils have been using for two years prior to the pandemic. And while not all kinds of teaching transition well to the online environment, it was a reasonable temporary alternative for the necessary six weeks, alongside some face-to-face time in Google Hangouts.

Amazingly, there was no school “downtime” in the shift from physical school to full online learning. Teachers scrambled in the few weeks prior to lockdown to adapt their material and post daily schedules for each class to keep it all going. School holidays were brought forward so that schools could reopen as soon as lockdown measures were eased. And when schools did reopen, the girls were rather disappointed to discover that their term 3 exams were neither cancelled nor delayed.

However the daily school experience is very different now – the enforced social distancing measures, mandatory mask-wearing and drastic reduction in non-academic activities has made the school day significantly less enjoyable. Assemblies, performances and co-curricular activities have pretty much ceased. Recess is a relatively subdued affair. Even PE has had to adapt to minimise physical interaction. The girls are hard-pressed to find a bright spot amidst the changes and no one knows how long this will last. But as we adapt and persevere, everyone is making the best out of a difficult situation, and no doubt all the little things which were previously taken for granted will be joyously appreciated in future. 

In the run-up to Teacher’s Day this year, one of our daughter’s form teachers asked whether we could record a song for this year’s Teacher’s Day celebration. So, this is our contribution to the collective heartfelt thanks from all the grateful parents and pupils in Singapore today!

Happy Teacher’s Day to all teachers!