I am aghast at Ms Lee Wei Yin's comments ("Working after school hours part of 'service'"; Oct 8), particularly coming from a grassroots leader.

First, schools are not service centres, and teachers do not serve students or their parents. Teachers, together with parents, impart knowledge and values, and guide and nurture our young ones. Teaching is a noble profession.

Second, if parents are not concerned enough about their children's development and progress in school to take a day off work to attend parent-teacher meetings, the parents need to do some serious soul-searching, instead of requesting evening or weekend slots.

Furthermore, many teachers are also parents themselves. How do such parents meet their children's teachers then? They make an effort to.

Third, many schools have a very active and involved parents support group, with both regular and ad hoc teams of parent volunteers, contrary to Ms Lee's views.

Fourth, Ms Lee's suggestion to cut class sizes to share the work load ignores the pragmatic constraints of school physical resources and facilities. An increase in the number of classrooms and changes in configurations, and the sharing of facilities are just some difficult considerations.

Teachers and principals deserve their rest too, just like everyone else.

Wendy Yuen Woon Yoke (Ms)