MOE protects principals, but is excessively harsh on teachers
Posted by temasektimes on June 25, 2012
As a former teacher, I am a insider to policies of MOE. MOE protects principals but is excessively harsh on teachers. There are many male teachers who got terminated just because of some exaggerated and unfounded complaints from female students. This is definitely a serious case of sexual grooming if the person involved is a teacher. Many male teacher in a less severe case will get a E grade and get terminated
Besides, It is a common practice for principals to damn a male teacher by setting him up using female students. Very often, a HOD or principal will assign the worst class with the most Ah Lian for the targeted teacher. This provides a inevitable environment of conflict between teacher and students.
In such environment it is very simple to screw the career of male teachers. Very often, the principals and HOD would just need to summon those Ah Lian after she receives disciplinary actions from the teacher, and entice her to complain about that teacher. To damn a male teacher, the principal or HOD would tried marshalling the girl and to frame whatever complains into sexual context.
The targeted teacher fate is sealed.
VERITAS
*The above was first posted as a comment on The Temasek Times.
THE TEMASEK TIMES 
spotlessleopard said
Principals of Schools are selected based upon their Political Correctness…and once they are appointed…they end up as PETTY DICTATORS….often terrorising the whole School Teaching and Administrative Team….sad situation..
Teacher Wendy said
Agree. Though there are still some good principals around, most of them are good in politicking and meeting KPIs. This is how the Singapore system works! Meeting KPI, getting awards, increasing GDP… They manage the school based whether they can wayang and showcase stuff to make them standout. They “manage” and not “inspire” their teachers. But when problem appears, MOE is fast to protect them. In the case of this Northland principal, MOE simply brushed it off. Why? Principals are cream to emerge among the 40k teachers to be the best! This is to proof that their choice of selection will never go wrong.
hachoo said
This is called deflective action. Principals today are no better, just read the recent news !!!!!
PAPPY STYLE said
Fully agreed. Their style is PAP style and arrogant sometimes no moral value at all.
Anon said
Wah …. and we are supposed to believe what is said here is 100% true
Singapuraboi said
I m disgusted with principals, HODs and the MOE after reading this article. I have heard stories of similar ilk from teacher frens but thot they r mere exagerrations. These principals and HODs are far more indisidious than the teachers. By enticing, goading and coaching students to frame and set up some teachers due to school politics is imparting the wrong messages and values to the students. This is very serious and what does MOE have to say. No, I believe we have to escalate it to the minister level and see what he says and the actions he takes cos we can use this against them in the next election. Already our students are deprived of scholarships and places in schools and universities. Let the govt know that the people are no pushovers and we want an answer to how they r educating our students.
Andrew Goh said
What a sad state of affairs in our schools! Principals and HODs are abusing their authority and ministerial officials are unwilling to take guitly parties to task!
ex said
Another place that is similar to moe is mha.
former law enforcement people will know such tactics quite common .
matah said
Common in civil service..
Lets move on.
Yours Toothfully said
What subject did you teach? Not English, I hope.
Itsjustmyvoice said
This is a political game play by the whites. By selecting the right candidates for the job, they can keep a watchful eye on those that will share anti-whites sentiments. I strongly believe this is to prevent similar cases like, the Operation ColdStore in 1963 or the 1987 “Marxist Conspiracy”, from happening again.I strongly believe, a lot of cover-ups or other falsified accusations, usually are for MOE or other white related groups to look good and to show that they are actually doing something for citizens.
Example, the door article is clear that it is a show to tell everyone that smrt is not all faults, even though, I also that the reporter is a bit carried away. This, however, does not necessary lead to sacking. This is clearly a display of power a reminder not to mess with the whites.
So in the principal’s case, and many other principal and teacher cases that happen recently, this is just not make their image look worst.
passerby said
Not that I disbelieve such practices do happen and that the civil service has quite a few bad apples. However, there are over 300 schools in MOE (meaning 300 over principals and a couple of thousands of HODs). Although I am not a teacher, I have been on several internships with different schools. I cannot find it in me to simply generalize and say that the MOE and rest of civil service adopts ‘petty dictatorships’ and a so-called ‘pap-style’. Surely, teachers should have more protection (for those who are sincere in teaching) but it is erroneous to also blame the entire management structure of the MOE (and civil service) as there are also many good people inside. I, fortunately, have had the luck to meet some great people to work under. Of course, you can now accuse me of not having been in MOE enough to see the uglier side of it. *shrugs* we are all entitled to our own opinions I guess. The point is – don’t simply generalize. It’s irresponsible and not constructive at all.
Veritas said
A few bad apples is how few? What obvious in recent years, is the large number of sexual scandals coming out of civil service, many of them involving senior officials. Some are as pervert as the case of paedophile principal. Many of them involving the top elites were sweep under carpet.
And these lurid news has almost become a relishing porn fulfilling my wildest fantasies for many months. One of the case involved Goh Ken Yi, grandson of Goh Keng Swee. He was alleged to screw his ACS teacher.
Today, with such a decadence civil service, there are still fan who claimed it is just “a few bad apple”. I think civil service look more like a pervert loveboat to me.
Passerby said
HAHAHAHA. I guess how few are those that you and others here have mentioned. *shrugs* its pointless to go into debate about how few or many. Again, the point is – don’t generalize. Why ? Because you insult and trample upon all the good work that many people have put in.
Passerby said
Oh, and you know what is perverted ? You using the word ‘veritas’. Sigh. It is rather unfortunate indeed. That people brandish words like ‘truth’, ‘freedom’ and ‘justice’ without ever sparing a thought of what they mean and signify. Furthermore, many of these people’s words and actions directly contradict what they claim to stand for. Now, that is an act of perversion. And again, it is a distressing state of affairs.
Kevlias said
I am a former civil servant and i dont think this happens everywhere or often. On the contrary, i believe this happens among the junior level more. than some senior management doing it to the junior level
grandoise said
“As a former teacher, I am *an* insider to policies of MOE.” Maybe the Merciful Lord Jesus Christ show His Grace on your poor students.
pointblank said
Anybody could have written this…
SIGH. said
Don’t you see what your doing here; if creating disharmony and unrest is your hidden intention after seemingly “opening the locked deviousness of MOE/education system/educators to the world”, congrats. please don’t let your next article be on the abolishment of the Ministry and current educator’s list because i would still like to have my teachers in a sane mind. this entire saga is uncalled for (because of the lack of objective truth) and totally demoralizing to educators whose hearts are (or were) in the right place.
LkySi said
And to think about it all – we have a new Education Minister . Just another eunuch
Effect can only be seen after 2016? said
It’s a sad thing to see that MOE is not taking action against a potentially dangerous principal who stalked on SYT. Our life experiences have forewarned us to the fetish behaviors and enticing actions posed by Koh Yiak Kheng Leonard, showing every details of his ever readiness to lure and strike when opportunity arises. The pictures posted by various newspapers and online portal such as TT are evidential of an educator crossing the boundaries. A pervert will not leave traces on his face. More often, he will use friendliness and kindness to mask his evil design, which I believe, deceive most of his preys or even his ex-students. We have to protect our minors from harms that leave emotional scars throughout their lives by segregating the sicko from public. From the way MOE handles this matter, it teaches us not to leave it to chance by taking action before the minors are hurt.
Effect can only be seen after 2016? said
Back in the late 80′s while pursuing the secondary education, we have PE teacher who was pervert too. He was touchy towards the girls especially in swimming lessons and the best part was he loved to teach only the female students who totally couldn’t swim. On several occasions, we heard classmates mimiking the PE teacher offering the girls private swimming lessons. Much awareness were brought to school and MOE but our approaches were futile. Fearing repercussions might befall us, we yielded to the authority.
More than 20 years had passed since then, does MOE improve? Indeed they deteriorate, judging from the way they handled complaint from parents regarding the Principal of Northland Sec, Koh Leonard. The sole action taken was to make an official statement that there is no ‘MISCONDUCT’ while no real investigation was even conducted. What MOE demonstrates to Singaporean is her domineering and indifferent attitude towards complaints. Upon deeper observance, I beg to differ that MOE is indifferent towards complaints but somehow attempts to conceal the truth to protect another educator under public scrutiny. In order words, they are protecting their own ar5e!
How about the those young girls whom MOE should instead protect? The mission of the Education Service is to mould the future of the nation, by moulding the people who will determine the future of the nation. Without protecting these young vulnerable children of our future from the evil clutches of a friendly yet perverted principal, what makes you think that MOE can achieve its mission? Can the parents of today trust MOE’s effectiveness and integrity in handling matters fairly without exercising prejudice? Or do we have to wait for 2016 to effect a change? Seems that the latter is more effectual!
Toh said
Based on the sharing from the above ex-educators, I feel sorry that MOE is creating such a political environment for the educators. No wonder the students in Singapore are feeling the stress in school because all these build up stress within the ministry has been cascaded to them. All the more reformation should take place within MOE to create a positive environment. MOE has to first set a good example, follow by principals and teachers. If MOE continues to run like a corporation (top down approach) while allowing its educators’ misbehaviors and unprofessionalism go unchecked, there goes our future of Singapore.
I now have an impression that MOE allows married principal to go on social media to flirt with young girls, MOE allows principal to openly share about woman orgasm on social media but takes no concrete actions on this principal.
April Tin said
I have a very close friend who is Leonard Koh’s student. Leonard Koh brought her out for dinner and gave her tuitions. During that time, he was so close to her that my friend actually developed a huge crush on him. I felt very uncomfortable about the things that Leonard Koh did to my friend because it went beyond what a normal teacher would do. The thing I could not stand about Leonard Koh was that such actions continued for quite a while, which meant that he was leading my friend on. Shame on him!
Itsjustmyvoice said
One point makes me dwell into deep thoughts and I also believe everyone also ever thought of this.
Looking at the previous article, a NTU girl was sacked by a local bank when she was falsely accused of prostitution.
Let’s us first assume that her case is fake then she is innocent. Why is she still being sack?
Now, let us look at the other angle, if it’s true, what is wrong when someone moonlights but it’s not against or breaching any company business?
Yet, if we look at this case of the principal, Koh Leonard, MOE was quick to brush off and clear the verdict.
In this case, he is clearly guilty but this type of guilt is where he uses his teacher professional to continue staying in touch with his ex-student. This is a breach of trust as he make use of his profession to achieve other means. However, this other mean, can be a good one where he is just trying to communicate but why does he need to communicate with his ex-student?
Let us look at another important point to show that he is very unprofessional as he actually make use of his professional to befriend them. From the conversation with the girl, it is also clear that the girl that he asked out, is neither his current or ex-student because she is an acquintance in Ngee Ann Sec only. So what about this case?
So if I uses this as an example, we see a lot of police patrolling at MRT stations, what happen if they decided to get friendly with girls while patrolling?
Luckily, they are truly professional. Only one recent case of them using their hp, but just a few SMS could replying to family members, so why fault them?
So in comparison, I can conclude that MOE are just playing a political ball game for the favour of the whites. I personally feel that Koh Leonard should be brought up again but this time, very clearly as a form of reminder to all parents that recently, there are a hike cases of student abuses. We must not overlook every details.
Student chew said
I was shocked to see Leonard Koh name mention in the recent news as he used to be my PE teacher when I was in secondary school. Most of the girls dislike him as he was always trying to be very touchy towards us during PE lessons. We felt uncomfortable whenever he passes by us in school, I will never forget him.