Monday, July 8, 2013

My First Skool Teacher

This is a scary picture. What kind of parent will leave her charge in the hands of a masked stranger?

The human face provides important cues for recognition of both individuals and emotions, cues instrumental for the fight or flight decision in a life threatening situation. Developmental psychologists have long been interested in face recognition because faces provide an early channel of communication (prior to the onset of language) between child and caretaker. It is generally recognised that, from birth, infants possess rudimentary facial processing capacities. Jeffrey and Rhodes ("Insights into the development of face recognition mechanisms revealed by face after effects", British Journal of Psychology 102 (4): 799–815) said that faces "convey a wealth of information that we use to guide our social interactions. Even infants at seven months are able to comprehend facial expressions as social cues representing the feelings of other people, an important development of the early warning system for the dangers of interacting in an adult world. Those who are not developmentally impaired grow up to be streetwise, others end up as trusting souls, forever falling for one scam after another.

The chief executive of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) First Campus, Mr Chan Tee Seng, needs to explain to parents how staff are recruited for his childcare arm of the NTUC First Campus Co-operative. The faceless child abuser had worked at Toa Payoh Lorong 4 branch of My First Skool (MFS) on a part-time basis since 2009. In all those years, Chan needs to explain how the teacher performance review was conducted.

23 comments:

  1. I have got to give it to you for highlighting this important aspect of the whole sorry episode which escaped the notice (or ignored) by the MSM. The NTUC will ignore it.

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  2. I would have thought it was some kind of Taliban childcare till I read that it is operated by NTUC. Who in the right mind would have recruited and permitted such an employee? I can understand if teachers are in baju kurung, but this is ridiculous.

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    Replies
    1. Zorro of SinCity should make himself present for the inquiry to dispense words of wisdom to the offending employee.

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    2. he must explain that what happened is not his policy of better, faster cheaper. Hope he would quickly implement his policy to 3 year old kids.

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  3. "Our Promise to Families
    We inspire families with the joy of learning to help nurture and fulfil the promise of each child by:
    •Building strong relationships between teacher, parent and child.
    •Engaging families in the education of their children.
    •Preparing each child to achieve his/her best in school.
    •Developing confident and happy children who are ready for life.
    We promise to provide a happy pre-school experience for each child in a caring and supportive learning environment. We nurture confident and happy children who are ready for life and prepare them to achieve their best in school through a balanced curriculum that lays a strong foundation for life-long learning".

    Thank you NTUC for your empty PROMISES!

    fish 'n' chips

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  4. And also how come other staff there can choose to ignore the child's predicament. This Skool should be shutdown for good.

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    Replies
    1. NTUC chief Lim Swee Say should conduct a surprise check on this childcare centre, of course wearing his famous Zorro mask. It will be helpful if Halimah and Heng Swee Keat accompanied him.

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    2. Every month, when I look at my CPF statement, I feel so rich.
      Where got time to conduct surprise checks?

      We must first get our politics right.
      This is the helicopter view.
      No time for childcare centre problems lah.
      It's a once in 50 years event.

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  5. Thanks for highlighting the shortcoming (and a very important one, faceless teacher) of our educators and ntuc.
    I think it should be mandatory that all childcare centres install cctv adequately for security and safety of the children. The relevant authorities should also make it a law for surprise checks to ensure they are working well.
    Btw, they even intentionally teach the children the wrong spelling of school!

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    Replies
    1. What's the use of the cctv if the identities can be hidden from view? Aren't motorcyclists supposed to remove crash helmets (those that obscure the faces) before they are allowed into a bank?

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  6. Does the MoE or anyone even check what NTUC as a whole does? NTUC Fairprice keeps piling up billions of surplus without returning it to members no one even knows whether they have lost them all in minibonds, now NTUC hires folks wearing face mask? Holy mackerel, why are the MoE folks mucking around running their own kinderhgartens when they cannot even supervise and enforce rules?

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  7. actually, this brings to mind another issue with these "early development centres" . Many of them will close the door and draw the curtains once kids are handed over and class start. I often feel a little discomfort when they do these after I handed my toddler over to the school. close door i can understand, but all the curtains ?? why such secrecy and privacy ? how would a young child tell you if some thing bad happens during time there ? CCTV is good. there must be accountability. we should never just trust blindly now.

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  8. Why do they need to name a childcare centre a "First Campus" when in reality it is simply a kindergarden ?

    Is NTUC trying to con parents into thinking that this type of enrolment will lead their kids to graduate from university 'campus' eventually ?

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    Replies
    1. We call it First Campus.
      Then can charge university fees for kindergarten studies mah.

      Like I get million dollar salary.
      For doing very little work mah.

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    2. They call it a campus because it is the first and last campus their kids can be assured of a place. The places in the real campus have been set aside for foreigners, complete with free tuition, accommodation plus pocket money. For locals, they will have to sell their HDB flat to send their kids overseas for a university degree.

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  9. Would you send your kid to a place where they mis-spell school ?

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  10. Why is the uproar over injury on this kid so much more than the sex molestation case of young school children by ACSI principal and the other cases of molestation by the Chinese language school teacher?

    Why wasn't there calls for MOE to review the way they screen and review the behaviour of teachers in schools?

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  11. Radioactive Tritium At Record High Levels In Fukushima Ground- And Sea-Water

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/07/national/tritium-soaring-in-water-at-no-1-plant/#.Udt0q20lG2D

    Better keep monitoring the situation at Fukushima Nuclear Reactors.
    - otherwise, the PAPigs will try and "sell" us on the benefits of nuclear energy for Singapore again

    with their millions, they can run road to america.
    and we will be stuck with a radioactive Singapore.

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  12. And they can't even spell school correctly!
    (I know, I know - they are trying to be cute - but kids will learn the wrong word.)

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    Replies
    1. maybe the wanted to spell;

      "STOOL"

      aka .... S H I T

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  13. behind the veil, was it ....

    a he?

    a she?

    a shim?

    .... it's superwoMan

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  14. After this case happened, all the cctvs were removed from all their branches. It will be good to place kids with preschools that have cctvs always, to prevent any mishaps from happening. As teachers are afterall human beings, they may turn evil if they sick of facing children or their parents and ill-treated those innocent children. Moreover, those preschoolers not all are independent as their age ranges from 3 months to 6 years old. Hopefully, one day there will be a complusory kid protection law to enforce that all preschools MUST INSTALL CCTVS and not removing them, if staff is passion on their job and clear conscience, they shouldn't be unhappy with cctvs at the classrooms, as afterall it was meant for protecting the negatives from happening. Staff may side one another to cover negatives if any mishaps really happened, preschoolers are the victims.

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