‘Their transformation keeps me going’: 8 teachers receive their profession’s top honour

SINGAPORE – As teacher-in-charge of her school’s international dance co-curricular activity, Madam Usha Krishnasamy took it upon herself to support a pupil with Down syndrome who was having difficulty rehearsing for a year-end performance.

She created simple visual cues for the North View Primary School pupil to follow, and incorporated breaks.

When the pupil was absent for rehearsals, Madam Usha took her place in the dance and filmed videos for the girl so that she could practise in her own time.

With her encouragement, the pupil successfully performed alongside the dance team – a sight that brought tears of joy to her mother and Madam Usha.

This cemented a belief in Madam Usha. “Students with additional needs have a lot of challenges, but when you give them the right support, they can reach great heights as well,” she said.

Madam Usha, 46, was among eight teachers who received the President’s Award for Teachers from President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Sept 4 for their outstanding work.

Established in 1998, the President’s Award for Teachers is the nation’s top honour recognising educators for their excellence and dedication in nurturing the young.

Minister for Education Desmond Lee, Senior Minister of State for Education Janil Puthucheary and Minister of State for Education Jasmin Lau also attended the annual Teachers’ Day Reception at Fairmont Singapore hotel.

The recipients were selected from 18 finalists by a panel chaired by Mr Patrick Tay, who was then the chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education. The panel included representatives from the Ministry of Education, post-secondary education institutions and others from the community.

A total of 4,747 educators from 310 schools and eight post-secondary education institutions were nominated by school leaders, colleagues, parents as well as former and current students.

Award recipients will be able to participate in an overseas learning programme and share their learnings with the education fraternity. Award finalists will receive a grant to attend either overseas or local conferences, seminars or courses.

Madam Usha, a Tamil language teacher, said she helps pupils learn by engaging various senses. For instance, her pupils get to use coloured sand and Play-Doh to form letters, try to do Kahoot! quizzes with text-to-speech functions, and create songs using artificial intelligence (AI).

Hearing the words read aloud can help pupils, especially those with reading difficulties, connect the sound to the letter, she said. Writing the letters on sand can help those with special educational needs, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, to reinforce their learning.

She is encouraged when a pupil, instead of leaving all the questions blank, attempts two out of 10 questions because of her quiz format. “We need to celebrate progress and small successes because that will encourage them to move forward,” she said.

Madam Usha, who has been teaching for 23 years, said: “The transformation of students, and them wanting to go the extra mile for things that seem difficult for them, keeps me going all these years.”

For another award recipient Abdul Hadi Abdul Wahab, a senior art teacher at Holy Innocents’ High School, teaching art helps him to understand his students better.

“Students don’t really find time to figure out who they are and how they can express themselves. But in art, they have the space and the opportunity to do so,” he said.

The 35-year-old, who studied animation in university, blends technology with creative expression to design his art lessons. For example, he guided 15 students to create an interactive trail using augmented reality for the school’s Thanksgiving ceremony.

Mr Hadi, who is teacher-in-charge of the school’s Applied Learning Programme for Media Services, has guided more than 90 students in photography, videography and audio-visual support at school events.

Students learn to run morning assemblies and capture events like the National School Games. His aim is to train students to tell stories through various platforms, he said.

Mr Hadi also encourages students to draw connections between art and other subjects. For instance, students designed MRT station wall murals that show how various neighbourhoods have evolved – using concepts they learn from history and geography lessons – and imagine how the places might further change.

“There are ‘wicked’ problems in the world we do not know the answers to. Ten years down the road, we will not know what the economy will be like. So to prepare students for that, they have to connect different fields together in order to find new solutions for these problems,” he said.

Another award recipient, Mr Max Chua Kang Loong, an electronics and infocomm technology lecturer at ITE College West, recalled how he supported a student who struggled with severe social anxiety and could barely function in class. He did so by working with the student, his family and peers.

Realising the student was most comfortable engaging one-on-one, Mr Chua matched him with supportive classmates for pair work, and held remedial lessons with him. The student gradually progressed to larger-group activities.

The boy not only overcame his anxiety but later became a master of ceremonies at ITE events, a voice actor and is now pursuing his degree at a local university.

Mr Chua, 36, also introduced the “AI Classroom” in 2023 to equip students with their own “GenAI tutor” for personalised one-to-one learning.

AI became a supporting tool in his students’ learning process as they interacted with the AI for feedback, practice and explanations at their own pace, he said.

Mr Chua guided students to use the AI platform effectively, as well as to evaluate and question the AI responses.

“I was once an ITE student myself, so I know how powerful the right guidance can be,” he said.

“This fuels my passion to give back – to help my students see that their past does not define their future.”