Been really upset with how the education system is like in Singapore. How the whole culture goes around the “you are just stressed. Feelings are lame.” If we were all taught in school better all about feelings and how to manage our emotions, it would really be a better place in the whole world. Schools aren’t teaching relevant topics and whenever something is implemented, it’s usually not helpful to students at all. And it all starts from young. And teachers being able to manage themselves better too because that’s how we all learn. From the adults in our world. Sadly, that’s not how it works in Singapore and it’s frustrating to see
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I hear you, @user88512. Are you still in the education system or are you recounting past experiences?
Culture is something built over time but any immediate ideas on what we could do to change?
Hi. Thanks for your reply! Wasn’t expecting any. I am a self employed teacher. I teach music in secondary schools. Adult private students. And relief teaching for preschools. I have seen students of all ages. And I think a good start would be from preschool. But it’s tough as ECDA can afford to do better. I have seen lots of horror stories happening real life and tried my best to help , but it wasn’t taken very seriously and all they wanted to do was to cover up. And they took 7 months to investigate an abuse case and told me to keep mum about it. It’s rubbish.
My idea was a whole education reform. Starting with training teachers how to to regulate their emotions better and manage themselves in times of stress(which is almost all the time), so that they can set a better example and kids can learn. About knowing to regulate their emotions as well. It starts from young. But unfortunately, a lot of teachers do not have that skill. And the class sizes are way too big, ECDA’s ratio isn’t ideal for the best education for mental health. And even if the ratio is reduced, but the teachers aren’t trained properly, it’s tough to do a whole education reform. But that was my idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources nor the relevant CV to implement any big changes. Just helping one kid at a time. It’s heartbreaking though. Wish I could do more to help the extremely flawed system. Anyway, thanks for listening
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Hi @user88512 !
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your feelings here on this platform, I really appreciate your honesty!
It sounds like you have had lots of experience as a self-employed teacher; but also as someone that the students find comfort with too. It’s also interesting to see that your idea of having an education system reformed; it’s something that a lot of people have actually been talking about too.
I agree with you on the point that if we were all (not just teachers or the education system) taught about mental health and emotions, it would be very beneficial for everyone. If we could take it a scale deeper, I would say we should even teach mental health awareness and emotional regulation skills to all parents and families to co-regulate, and from there the children will learn and grow into adults and be role-models themselves! It all begins from home, and that’s something that I think will be possible too 
I believe it’s possible for this to happen and like what @Jaws mentioned, culture does take a long time to develop but I believe that it’s never too late to educate!
One of the ways that I believe we can cause a positive impact is to be a good role-model of emotional regulation for others that come our way! As a teacher, you’re in the frontline - interacting with people from all walks of life. Imagine the kind of reach you would have if you were able to teach and model to them what it’s like to manage emotions and regulate them!
I encourage you to to continue to inspire the young and old, and keep up the good efforts about advocating for emotional regulation skills and mental health awareness!
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Hi!!!
Happy to have people who are like-minded.
Thank you for your kind words. 
I did not know a lot of people were talking about it. Because everyone around me seems to have different ideas about it. And I really dislike what ECDA has been doing so far. They can afford to do much better.
And yes, educating parents would be great as well because most adults do not have the proper skills to manage their emotions better. I was thinking of preschool teachers first because honestly, the kids spend more time with the teachers than their parents and that’s a good place to start to help them feel safe enough and build the skills up for better regulation of emotions and recognising the feelings they have.
Would love to discuss more if you are interested! You can reach me at telegram
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This reminded me of the recent Kinderland incident. They literally said they can do better.
But yeah was just reading through your experience and I agree with you that mental health training is critical. Although I’ve also heard about how such training can add on to a teacher’s workload and therefore reduce the attractiveness of the role. As it is now, teachers (especially preschool teachers) already have to do so many things, would it be beneficial to go top-down and get them to go for additional training?
On the proposed teacher-student ratio, I also agree that it’s probably not the best. Smaller groups are better but it goes back to manpower issues again which is really hard to solve because there are so many dependencies.
They are just covering their asses by giving a short term fix to that huge issue. A cctv ain’t gonna help much. There are schools that have cctvs where the teachers hide away from them whenever they do something “wrong”. So yeahhhh. And regarding the training, they already have this mandatory training they have to go to every few months or something anyway. So…. They could afford to revise the training that they provide because honestly, most of the things they are training for aren’t helpful for real life situations. So yes. ECDA needs to do way better. And the society and culture as well. It makes me feel sick knowing that I can’t make a huge difference in this flawed system. My heart just goes out to all the poor kids.
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