Before deciding whether community work should be graded or made compulsory, we need to determine if it is relevant to the course objective ("Should schools enforce community work?"; Monday, and "Don't make community work compulsory" by Mr Jeffrey Law Lee Beng; Wednesday).

We need to remember that learning should be fun, interesting and enjoyable - not stressful - to achieve the best results.

Community work needs to come from the heart and not be forced on students.

There would not be much learning value if the student feels obligated to fulfil a certain number of community service hours.

Mandatory community work will not benefit students. In fact, it may cause displeasure and result in the student losing all interest in community work in the future.

If community work is enforced with the aim of achieving a course objective, then it is important for the school to communicate and convince students and parents of how it is relevant and necessary for the course.

Leong Kok Seng