Teachers in Singapore don't have it easy:

More recently on May 17, a Facebook post by Stacey Elizabeth Toh addressed a similar can of worms — the role of early childhood educators.

Harsh comments towards early childhood educators

According to Toh's post, she witnessed a slew of disheartening Facebook comments towards early childhood educators.

This was after she joined a "certain public group", which we presume is related to childcare in Singapore.

Here are some examples of the comments left:

"Just complain la to the principal, get her out of job."

"Wahhh, if I were you I demand compensation, go online blow big big, go MP. Then get the teacher fired."

"Just put your child in school till 7pm sharp. U pay what for school fees. Make full use la."

"Aiya all these teachers don't know one la, unless they are mothers if not don't trust them to take care, all they have is a cert."

Standing up for early childhood educators

As an early childhood educator herself, Toh was moved to write her own response to these comments on Facebook.

This is especially so as she feels that the social media posts were one-sided, and one cannot know the full story just by reading it.

Thus, Toh's post elaborates on the sacrifices and dedication of each educator — towards children that are not even their own.

Summary of post

As the post is rather lengthy, here's a summary of it:

- Early childhood educators are willing to endanger their lives to protect their students if the situation calls for it. Should the school be on fire, she writes, the teacher would die to protect the children.

- An early childhood educator typically has more than 10, and sometimes even up to 30 students in a class. Which is quite a handful, one can imagine.

- When parents inform a teacher that their child had fallen down at home, the teacher would help by giving advice on how to better manage the situation.

- However, when a child falls at school, the teacher will bear the brunt of a parent's anger — even while their hearts ache for the child.

- This is despite having to manage many more children in school, as compared to a few children at home.

- Some of the teachers, who are parents themselves, spend more time with their students than with their own child.

- She added that teachers will never give up on their students, and feel the same ache and pride when they see the children walk down the aisle in their graduation gowns.

- To end off, she acknowledges that there are understanding and objective parents out there and thanked them for seeing them as teachers.

Seven to 12 hours a day at work

As Toh pointed out, the teachers spend an inordinate amount of time with the children they care for.

In fact, they spend a total of between seven to 12 hours with them, according to the operating hours of child care centres found on the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) website:

• Mondays to Fridays: No later than 7am / no earlier than 7pm
• Saturdays: No later than 7am / no earlier than 2pm

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Reaching out to parents and teachers

The Facebook post has since garnered more than 400 shares, reaching both parents and teachers alike.

Some teachers expressed their gratitude to Toh for being their voice, and for making the public aware of their commitment.

Others were even moved to tears, and saluted the teachers for doing the work they do.

And a parent related her own experience: 

You can read the full post here:

Top image via Ministry of Education's Facebook page