[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/parents-stand-by-standing-up-to-bad-teachers-after-poly-sacking-of-lecturer\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/parents-stand-by-standing-up-to-bad-teachers-after-poly-sacking-of-lecturer\/","headline":"Parents stand by standing up to bad teachers, after poly sacks lecturer","name":"Parents stand by standing up to bad teachers, after poly sacks lecturer","description":"With the dismissal of Tan Boon Lee from Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore weighing on the national conversation around standing up to errant educators, while shedding light on the mental toll of racist acts, what do parents think about measures being taken by the Polytechnic and the Ministry of Education to tackle racism and other […]","datePublished":"2021-06-25","dateModified":"2022-04-16","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/chester-tan\/#Person","name":"Chester Tan","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/chester-tan\/","identifier":325,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0dbcddee20fd5fe45477ebee46c048512a4d730227c828def18726d4651688b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0dbcddee20fd5fe45477ebee46c048512a4d730227c828def18726d4651688b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1624589425197_Hero.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1624589425197_Hero.jpeg","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/parents-stand-by-standing-up-to-bad-teachers-after-poly-sacking-of-lecturer\/","about":["Community","Local","Race","Singapore"],"wordCount":1890,"articleBody":"With the dismissal of Tan Boon Lee from Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore weighing on the national conversation around standing up to errant educators, while shedding light on the mental toll of racist acts, what do parents think about measures being taken by the Polytechnic and the Ministry of Education to tackle racism and other harmful behaviours and attitudes of staff in schools? TheHomeGround finds out.The decision to dismiss senior lecturer Tan Boon Lee from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) over a case of serious misconduct came more than a week after he was reported to have made racist and Islamaphobic remarks in two separate instances, four years\u2019 apart.\u00a0Police investigations into both incidents are ongoing.\u00a0Nurul Fatimah Iskandar, 22, the NP alumna who blew the whistle on Mr Tan\u2019s allegedly racially and religiously insensitive behaviour in a 2017 programming class she was in, has been a key figure in the Polytechnic\u2019s internal investigations.\u201cNgee Ann released a press statement which reads as a typical signal that all necessary actions have been taken and that the case has been closed,\u201d Ms Nurul tells TheHomeGround Asia when asked for her response to the NP announcement on 17 June.\u00a0\u201cBut my intention was never to fight against one lecturer or one institution. There are so many more changes that need to be made to our education system in order to safeguard and protect our students,\u201d she adds.\u00a0\u00a0In her 9 June Instagram post, Ms Nurul recounted an episode in Mr Tan\u2019s class when he had initiated a discourse on Islam between himself, an ethnic Chinese Senior Lecturer in his 50s, and a classroom of mostly 17-year-old engineering students.A screenshot of Nurul Fatimah Iskandar\u2019s whistleblowing Instagram post dated 9 June 2021. In it she described the extent of Tan Boon Lee\u2019s classroom misconduct. (Photo source: Nurul Fatimah Iskandar \/ Instagram)The Polytechnic\u2019s statement detailed that it had charged Mr Tan for a \u201cserious breach\u201d of the institution\u2019s staff code of conduct and would terminate his service: “The disciplinary action meted out against the staff in question reflects our commitment to provide a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for our campus community.”It added that it will now \u201cmake all feedback channels for students more accessible and visible on its website\u201d, and that it would be \u201creviewing its internal feedback monitoring processes to identify and resolve gaps.\u201dIn the same vein, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has said that any form of racism is unacceptable and has no place in local schools, according to this report on 17 June. It also encouraged students and staff who experience racism in schools to flag it to their institutions immediately for investigations to be conducted, and that \u201cthose engaging in racist acts will be counselled and disciplined\u201d.MOE further announced that all schools will have a peer support structure in place by the end of this year, which would enable students to support one another and learn how to speak up for peers when necessary.\u00a0Singapore’s Ministry of Education has announced new measures to support students in standing up to errant educators. (Photo source: NUS)In the aftermath of the Tan Boon Lee saga, Ms Nurul describes the mental health ordeal that she endured, which was buttressed by strangers gaslighting her experience online and the investigation process with NP, her former school.\u201cWhen I decided to share my experience, I could not have imagined that it would gain so much traction overnight. Yet, it is the aftermath of that initial post that has taken up all of my time and energy in the last week (week beginning 14 June),\u201d she tells TheHomeGround Asia. \u201cIt has also placed a heavy weight on my shoulders and taken a serious toll on my mental health.\u201dAmid the cynical and snide remarks that made it into her inbox and onto her social media post were assertions by commenters that the Polytechnic \u201cwas going to bring you down\u201d, \u201ctwist your words to protect their image\u201d, and \u201cjust want to close your case and move on.\u201d\u00a0While Ms Nurul had initially defended the Polytechnic, she reveals that she was quickly disillusioned when investigations began. \u201cNgee Ann proved them right,\u201d she claims, exasperated.According to Ms Nurul, NP spending most of the investigations cross-examining her story, instead of discussing policy reforms, which was her \u201cmain intention\u201d, had contributed greatly to her stress.\u201cHere\u2019s the best part… Ngee Ann gave me their counsellor\u2019s number when we met…but when I told the counsellor that because of Ngee Ann\u2019s gaslighting and stuff, my mental health has relapsed into self harming, because of all the self-doubt they put into my head… the[ir] counsellor suggested for me to see an external counsellor,\u201d she elaborates.\u201cThis also caused my condition to worsen as I had to worry about money for treatment, use a lot of energy to e-mail and call everyone [I needed to see in the process], and spend time repeating my situation every time I got passed on to someone else,\u201d Ms Nurul adds.As her mental health continued to deteriorate, Ms Nurul stopped assisting in the investigations, citing the need for family and friends \u2013 some general practitioners and counsellors \u2013 to monitor her for self-harm and suicidal thoughts.Pointing to the possibility that the Polytechnic\u2019s counsellor may not have had the relevant training to advise her, Ms Nurul says that the Student Support team at her current university, the National University of Singapore (NUS), \u201cswooped in like a hero\u201d to offer the help she had sorely needed.As of 19 June, Ms Nurul has been in touch with NUS for her mental health concerns.\u00a0\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffStanding up to bad teachers requires more than courageTheHomeGround Asia reached out to a number of parents for their thoughts on the outcome of these two episodes involving Mr Tan. While many declined to be interviewed, those who spoke viewed the dismissal favourably. But they also remain cynical about the idea of standing up to unsavoury teachers in Singapore\u2019s educational institutions.\u00a0Beyond acts of self-preservation and calling out injustice, they think that the implications associated with whistleblowing are far more complex than is understood.\u201cI\u2019m not surprised that there are educators behaving in ways they shouldn\u2019t be… schools don\u2019t make it easy for students to complain, and students also fear,\u201d says Kim (not her real name), whose son is in secondary school.\u00a0She recounts the time when she had to weigh the pros and cons of lodging a formal complaint against her son\u2019s teacher in primary school.\u201cI hesitated to complain about the teacher in my son\u2019s class because if I were to complain and give my name and reveal who my son is, when they speak to the teacher they will reveal these things… my son would be in her clutches,\u201d she says, alluding to her lack of confidence that complainants’ identities would be protected, and in the professionalism of teachers.\u00a0\u201cThe teacher can very easily give you a low grade just because they don\u2019t like your face, you know?,\u201d she remarks.Lorraine Chua-Raja Shagaran, whose son is of mixed-ethnicities, says she agrees that confidentiality cannot be absolute: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to have complete confidentiality… even with your peers in school… it\u2019s very hard to control that.\u201dIn some sense, the sentiment that Kim and Mrs Chua-Raja Shagaran have expressed is analogous to that of students like Ms Nurul, back in 2017.\u201cI was on a scholarship and my grades depended on him,\u201d points out Ms Nurul, highlighting the same fear and uncertainty that parents like Kim feel when contemplating speaking out against educators.Another perception that surfaced in conversations with parents was that varying levels of professionalism exist not just among educators but in institutions too.Civil servant Raj (not his real name), who is a father of two interracial children, doubts that the education system is consistent in managing complaints and feedback.\u201cMost teachers, principals, whoever is in charge… they might not care… They don\u2019t care until something very bad happens… That\u2019s how it works in the civil sector,\u201d he claims. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing with the poly… they are only doing this now because they got knocked on the head.\u201dWhen asked if he would still encourage his daughters to use a feedback and support system if a similar one to NP was implemented in their schools, Raj says: \u201cOf course. The new measures are good, but different schools will still have different ways of handling [complaints about teachers].\u201dKim appears to agree with Raj. \u201cHow well it works will depend largely on how the institutions manage it. Do they take the complaints seriously and put effort into the investigation? If they do, then it may work. If they just ignore or do cursory checks into the complaints, then it won\u2019t work,\u201d she declares.\u00a0But are some schools better placed than others to succeed?\u00a0Kim thinks so. \u201cIt depends on the culture and mindset of the institutions\u2019 senior management,\u201d she posits. \u201cIt took over four years and multiple complaints from different parents for a single bad teacher in my son\u2019s school to be transferred out.\u201dShe also claims that teachers will only be dealt with when they have accumulated years of negative feedback.These suspicions closely mirror what students like Ms Nurul have encountered in tertiary institutions only recently.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve had friends complain to Ngee Ann, and they can testify that Ngee Ann has a habit of a) dragging the issue for so long that it dies and never gets resolved; or b) the issue was turned onto them, like when students complain about the curriculum, or something,\u201d she explains.\u00a0Ngee Ann Polytechnic has assured students and parents that it will review its internal feedback monitoring processes to identify and resolve gaps after the recent termination of former senior lecturer Tan Boon Lee. (Photo source: Ngee Ann Polytechnic \/ LinkedIn)\u201cThere\u2019s never been any of my friends who brought up a complaint and had Ngee Ann resolve it in a way the students had wished.\u201dMoving forwardAn external panel might be necessary to examine complaints, argues Raj: \u201cOtherwise it won\u2019t work.\u201dHe believes that only a non-partisan body employed to manage and process complaints or feedback can be trusted to handle cases without bias: \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for the school to be objective in such things.\u201dLikewise, Mrs Chua-Raja Shagaran thinks that educational institutions should have a dedicated committee for the managing of complaints of educator misconduct, and for students to seek recourse.\u00a0She also emphasises the need for a feedback and support infrastructure that helps students in difficult situations muster the courage to stand up for themselves, much like the one that NP assures it will improve.Another way to prevent unsuitable educators from slipping into the system, suggests Mrs Chua-Raja Shagaran, is to make the recruitment process more stringent and sophisticated.Ultimately, though, empowering students to stand up for themselves in school starts at home. \u201cThe confidence to stand up for yourself also comes from upbringing. Parents have to tell their kids that they can and must stand up to injustice no matter who the culprit is,\u201d she says.\u00a0Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Parents stand by standing up to bad teachers, after poly sacks lecturer","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/parents-stand-by-standing-up-to-bad-teachers-after-poly-sacking-of-lecturer\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]