MR EE Teck Ee has enumerated the sterling qualities an outstanding teacher should possess in his letter last Saturday, 'What matters is their quality'.

I share his concerns about the Ministry of Education's present recruitment initiative to increase its workforce by another 7,500 - most of whom will be classroom teachers.

The ministry must get down to the grassroots level to truly appreciate the enormity of the issues that teachers face daily.

Ministerial visits to schools, and those carried out by other top education officials, will be far more productive if VIP visitors are accorded unimpeded access to all channels of feedback.

In my 40 years as a teacher, most of my colleagues and I never got the chance to express our views with any of the VIP visitors to our schools.

The entire process involved mainly the school elite. The bulk of the teaching staff were never actively involved, except for those whose lessons were observed by the guest of honour and his entourage.

Even so, such classroom demonstrations were at best a perfunctory scratch on the surface because the agenda ensured little time for a closer scrutiny of what actuated both the pupils and the teacher who demonstrated the model lesson.

The feedback sessions were painstakingly orchestrated to show off the school at its best.

Even the questions posed to the VIPs were vetted to ensure that no feathers were unduly ruffled.

The influx of teachers into the education service, particularly during an economic downturn, has traditionally been robust.

Compassion, dedication, commitment and passion mark an outstanding teacher apart from an ordinary one.

It takes many years to train and nurture a competent teacher.

The ministry should take cognisance of much-publicised issues such as the slide in discipline, the over-emphasis on academic excellence, the proliferation of tuition centres to cater to worried parents and their harried and harassed children, and the lack of enthusiasm and love for schooling among an increasing number of students.

Ho Kong Loon

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