After reading the blog from the links given by les, I have a sudden surge of opinions running through my mind. Maybe I shall write a mini-AQ answer from one of the 'passage'.

Passage from Trisha Reloaded.

Nowadays, hearing complains about our education system is just an everyday thing. These complains came from all parties involved - parents, students and teachers.(But I shall just focus on the jeremiad against the system by teachers.)

From the Passage, Trisha states that "I hate waking up at the crack of dawn." Most of the schools now should be having only morning sessions except for some primary schools where they still have afternoon sessions e.g. YZPS. Still remeber the days where I had to wake up by 5am in the morning just to catch the school bus. Once we reached the school, we'll just slack in the classroom for about an hour or so before morning assembly starts. The authorities will rebut by saying that they did not want the children to hinder their parents to go for work on time due to the morning traffic jams and I kind of agree with them. If parents were to sent their children later or school buses arrive at each student's house later, the working adults will have to go work later too. With the addition of the morning jams, how late do you want to start work before you complain of knocking off at a even later time. lol It's inevitable for us to wake up before morning breaks.

Also, she states that "I hate it that 70% of my time with students involves collecting money from them." When I was still a student, my teachers didn't had that much of a problem on collection of money. Usually it was the class chairman or minitor who collects the money and pass the exact amount to the form teachers. All they have to do were to count the final amount to double-check. Then again, isn't it taxing for the class committee to do all these non-academic stuffs. Collecting money is just a mini side quest for them.

... ..."I hate having to queue up at the copier to zap notes and worksheets for my students." This seems to be a problem with the school managment. Think most schools should have enough photocopiers within the staff room. The least they could do was to sent the notes to the photocopying shop in the school. Maybe not all schools have such practice but it's the best solution for the time being. There's no need to help students photocopy all notes (only for some urgent ones); just sent it for printing and ask students to pay up and collect from the shop. Problem solved.

... ..."I hate it when I realise, once again, that teaching is often a thankless job." This is up to the luck of the teacher. If the teacher were to be posted to a good school, where students were eager to learn and having good conducts, he/she would feel a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. However, not all schools in Singapore have such good breeds of students. (No offense to the rest of the hundreds-odd schools) This problem is more prominent in secondary schools where teenagers are more rebellious against someone who's out to control their every actions. So teachers shouldn't have such high hopes for their students to be thankful to them. However, there are sure to be at least 1 student from a class whom you'll receive the thanks from. How to make this job more satisfying? - Win over each and every heart of your students. However, this mission is quite impposible by looking at the attitudes of the new generation of students.

... ... "I hate explaining that there's no such thing called Content Reduction." Since the introduction of the "Teach Less, Learn More" movement, more project-based initiatives are coming up - PW, I&E etc. On top of that, their academic syllabus hasn't change much; just that there are more topics or requirements introduced. Now for JC, Maths 9233 will include more topics or more in-depth in certain topics. That's why I think the ministry has either mis-interpreted their own "Teach Less, Learn More" movement or they had publicised wrongly of "Teach Less, Learn More" instead of "Teach EVEN More, Learn EVEN More". (Once wrong have to be wrong all the way~)

... ..."I hate teaching National Education because I don't know how to do it without sounding like Mao Zedong." NE is a very sensitive issue and it's also up to the students whether they want to accept such patriotic massages. It's pointless preaching to them when they don't even want to listen (although they already know what's the point teachers are putting across to them). Think the only reasonable solution is to make it as interactive as possible rather than to be like a lecture style. It's rubbish to say they never receive the obvious messages brought forward to them, it's just up to them whether they want to follow. As a student myself, I feel that it was an overkill. Maybe they should revise the NE requirements again.

... ..."I hate it that teachers cannot take leave on 2 Jan to take care of their own kids." I have no qualms about this as I myself had to go alone to school on the first day when I was still a Primary 1 kid. There isn't much the parents could do. The children should have a taste of a tinge of independent. Anyhow, the teachers will be there to take care of them in school.

... ..."I hate it that my marking is never finished... ...because we have to do so many other non-teaching-related work." Marking of students assignments is a part and parcel of a teacher's life. However, the job as a teacher today isn't that simple anymore. You not only have to teach students, mark scripts and meet parents, you'll have to juggle with administrative stuffs, school events, CCA and other miscellaneous things. Teaching will take almost half of the day; the other half of the day is for the teachers to fufil the rest of their responsibilities. How many free time will they have out of the 24 hours? Think it would be during breakfast, lunch, dinner and sleep.
This not only compromises the student's learning but also restricts the teacher's social life and well-being.

Teaching today isn't just about teaching; it's about nurturing students into an all-rounder. It figures for Singapore to be firm with this concept as being a pragmatic nation, the government would want the citizens to be way ahead of the rest of the world in order to compete with the other fast growing nations. That's why it's difficult to be a student and even more difficult to be a teacher. My stand is that the education system in Singapore has flawed, making teachers and teachers-to-be in a catch 22 - to be or not to be?