Recently, a friend's son who studies in Westwood Primary School raised an incident that had occurred in the school, which I found troubling.

As part of the Chinese New Year celebration, a group of lion dancers was invited to the school.

However, as far as I know, not all pupils were able to enjoy the performance in the hall.

Instead, pupils from all the levels except for Primary 6 were asked to leave their classrooms and gather on the ground floor.

The lion dancers then went into each Primary 6 classroom to perform.

My friend's son was told that this was to bless the school's Primary 6 pupils for the upcoming PSLE.

I find this practice unacceptable.

First, the performance of any Primary 6 pupil in the PSLE is a mark of the huge effort they have put in over the course of their primary school education.

If a simple blessing can improve the results of these pupils, should we start sending them to churches, temples or mosques to pray instead of studying hard?

Second, children often like to compare.

This act has caused quite a number of the other pupils to ask why there was preferential treatment for the Primary 6 pupils, in that they got to have such a close encounter with the lion dancers.

Are they not worthy of that experience too? Is it because they are less important?

Third, whose money was used to employ these lion dancers?

We all know that the Ministry of Education (MOE) allocates only a small fund to every primary school. Should this limited fund be spent on a lion dance?

Lastly, is the school being racially sensitive?

As it has lion dance during Chinese New Year, are Malay and Indian dancers invited to perform for Hari Raya and Deepavali too?

I sincerely hope the MOE can help to address some of these concerns.

Chua Boon Hou