Comment: After the craziest year, teachers start the first day of school with nervous apprehension.

SINGAPORE: Monday (January 4) marks the beginning of a new school year, at least for the children in Primary 1 and Kindergarten 1.

With a new school environment and fresh faces, most students undoubtedly feel a certain level of excitement, even nervousness, and so will their parents, seeing now that only a tutor can accompany the child.

Months of logistical and emotional preparations have been invested prior to this day to quell concerns.

But here’s some food for thought for anxious faces preparing for today’s big milestone: In the wake of a year plagued by coronavirus, not only students and parents are looking forward to the new school year in 2021 with a mix of excitement and detention.

The teachers are also anxious.

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EMOTION AND SATISFACTION

Do not misunderstand. Many educators see the first day of school as a wonderful opportunity to welcome a new class and put them on a solid foundation for a year-long journey of discovery and learning.

While many teachers can pastor their old classes from previous years, every new school year brings with it a few new classes and up to 100 or more new faces in my experience.

Teachers feel that excitement as they hope to unfold each student’s unique personality and discover the best way to help each of them learn and grow, not only through the academic curriculum, but also through other school experiences such as co-curricular activities.

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But in addition to getting to know students individually, teachers must also develop an awareness of class dynamics, for example, how students interact together and monitor those exchanges carefully.

Understandably, along with the excitement, educators feel a degree of nervous apprehension.

A YEAR OF ZOOM SCHOOL AND GREAT CHALLENGES

Let’s not forget that teachers have also just gone through the craziest year of their educational careers that revolutionized educational pedagogy. The COVID-19 crisis that erupted in 2020 caused a tremendous uproar in Singapore schools.

Not only were teaching and learning activities in the classroom forced to go online for a time, but co-curricular activities were suspended for a few months before they were allowed to resume progressively and only partially.

The crisis also had consequences for school exams. The Ministry of Education announced the cancellation of all mid-year exams, while the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board announced reductions in content coverage for key national exams, such as the primary school completion exam.

Meanwhile, the suspension of face-to-face lessons highlighted social and educational inequalities.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Education offered to provide personal learning devices and took steps to ensure the continuation of the School Meals Program for students in need of such assistance.

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At the same time, teachers had to instruct students on various safe driving measures to protect students’ physical health, while also being vigilant for potential mental health issues.

NEW DEMANDS TO CONTINUE

The demands placed on teachers are likely to continue in 2020. For example, teachers will have to figure out how to celebrate the National School Games and prepare their students for the Singapore Youth Festival Art performance, which are on the way. to restart in 2021.

Teachers are also challenged to interpret the Ministry of Education’s policy announcements as plans to make blended learning a regular feature of the school curriculum, and translate them meaningfully within their individual practice.

In addition to this, teachers will need to implement the 2021 Character and Citizenship Education curriculum, which focuses, among other things, on strengthening mental health and cyber-wellness education and establishing peer support structures within each school.

Other priority areas include increased support for students with special educational needs and extracurricular provisions for disadvantaged students.

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Teachers also have an onerous responsibility to respond to emerging societal concerns, such as protecting students from online predators and promoting education and respect for gender.

The good news is that new opportunities are also being seized for teachers hoping to find support in meeting these challenges.

The Ministry of Education presented SkillsFuture for Educators, an enhanced professional development roadmap, at the Parliamentary Debates of the Supply Committee in March 2020.

Teachers will have the opportunity to improve their skills and competencies in areas such as inquiry-based learning and e-pedagogy in order to better prepare for the changing priorities in the school system.

NEW AREAS OF CONCERN

People often think that teachers are confident and gifted with strong public speaking skills, and they fail to realize how teachers are invariably concerned with how well their students will respond to their teaching and to them as individuals.

This concern does not diminish with increasing experience, since earlier successes do not automatically guarantee success for later students.

There is also the perspective of responding to the unknown, for example, by knowing the crises that occur in the lives of students and responding in a responsible and supportive way.

In recent years, the apprehension felt by teachers has been increased by the knowledge that students’ lives are, in some way, substantially different from what teachers themselves experienced when they were of school age.

For example, today’s students are mostly digital natives, so teachers should take this phenomenon into account when planning their teaching and learning activities, being aware of the possible cyber threats faced by their students.

Hear from two parents share their front-row experiences of their children’s educational journey of learning at home during the circuit breaker on CNA’s Heart of the Matter podcast:

In addition, teachers must help their students navigate a more diversified school landscape than the one they went through.

There are also concerns about the world in which your students will emerge as adults. How do teachers prepare their students to be lifelong learners in anticipation of a future that is believed to be volatile and unpredictable, and for a workplace in which skills will increasingly count for more than grades?

THAT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PARENTS

Another key group of stakeholders that teachers will have to work with in 2021 are the parents of their students.

While parents naturally focus on their children’s learning and growth, teachers need to be concerned not only with individual students but also with the collective well-being of students, whether in or outside of the classroom.

Teachers are tasked with clearly communicating to parents the rationale for various school practices, especially in light of the fact that, like teachers, parents are also grappling with the reality of numerous policy changes.

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In other words, teachers are a mediating bridge between parents and the Ministry of Education.

For example, parents of students with non-special needs may need to understand how the integration of students will benefit their children with special educational needs in terms of developing values ​​such as caring and respect, rather than thinking that students with Special educational needs will slow your children’s progress.

Additionally, teachers have a great responsibility to enlist the support of a wide diversity of parents and to form collaborative partnerships with them, ranging from those who are overly anxious to those who are not involved.

As teachers return to school in 2021, their enthusiasm is likely to be accompanied by some unease as well. The uncertainties that arose in the year 2020 offered them an excellent opportunity to deal with different roles, as a healthcare worker and online educator. They also tested the resilience and adaptability of the teachers.

Your responses to these challenges will serve you well as you continue to contribute to the holistic development of your students and to work hand in hand with your students’ parents.

Above all, we are reminded that education is at its very core, an extremely humane endeavor, and it is not only about challenges but also about opportunities to assist each student on their own learning journey.

Hear from three working adults reveal how their PSLE ​​results have shaped their life journeys in unfettered conversation on CNA’s Heart of the Matter podcast:

Jason Tan is an associate professor at the National Institute of Education.