"Work-life balance? Here's one day in the life of a teacher",

Another letter to expose the unhealthy "Work-life balance" - Not only time for family life, but also preventing setting-up of family.

I think the Government should restrict working hours to support "Work-life balance".

Reference

ST Forum

May 21, 2010

Passion for teaching quickly sapped

I AGREE with Ms Aishah Quek's letter, "Work-life balance? Here's one day in the life of a teacher", last Saturday. Her husband is not alone.

The situation is also true for my daughter who is in the teaching profession too. She leaves home at 6.45am, returning at 7.30pm for dinner and continuing her work till midnight, all for a meagre salary. She hardly has any time to be with us or for herself, much less enjoying any kind of work-life balance.

My daughter was full of passion when she started teaching, but under these circumstances, it won't be long before her passion gets eroded and she suffers from burnout. Any new teacher would be quickly disillusioned and thus leave the profession in search of more fulfilling careers.

My daughter is single and with this routine, how is she going to look for a life partner? A number of my daughter's teacher friends who have been in the profession for about 10 years are still single, with no plans to get married. With the Government's push for more families and babies, even if my daughter wanted to support it, she is unable to.

If the Ministry of Education does not seek to understand the true demanding routine of a teacher, how can it say that it is taking measures to ease a teacher's workload?

Chin Sian Yew (Mdm)