Teachers and parents say new guidelines can help set boundaries, but some worry about implementation

SINGAPORE - When Ms D (not her real name) first started teaching in a primary school in 2012, she received a phone call one weekend from a pupil’s father asking to borrow money. 

She did not know why he had to borrow money, but was more worried about whether her pupil was in trouble, she said.

Ms D, who is in her 30s, said her pupil had told his father that “laoshi (teacher) is very nice, she will always help us”, which caused her to lose sleep and made her feel guilty that the boy was caught in the middle.

She did not lend any money to the father, telling him it was not appropriate for her to do so.

“I was not able to draw clear boundaries because all I wanted was to be a good teacher, and I thought then I should answer parents’ queries as quickly as possible,” she said.

Separately, a secondary school teacher, also in her 30s and speaking anonymously, said a parent hounded her with text messages after school, complaining about her son’s excessive phone use and demanding updates on the school’s actions regarding phone usage.

The conversation over WhatsApp lasted until the next morning, when the teacher eventually stopped replying.

To set boundaries, she later bought a work line that she registered as a WhatsApp business account, which she said helped “preserve professional relationships”. This means she can still receive messages on her phone and respond to urgent ones, but an automated business message is generated after school hours as a response.

The hope is that such interactions about non-urgent matters between teachers and parents will be minimised with new guidelines to set clearer expectations and boundaries.

Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on Sept 18 said that teachers are not required to share their personal phone numbers or respond to work-related messages after school hours,

among other measures aimed at improving teachers’ well-being

.

Speaking at the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Schools Work Plan Seminar, he said this is to establish boundaries and allow teachers to focus on conducting student activities, while also having time for themselves. 

Teachers from primary and secondary schools whom The Straits Times spoke to said the new guidelines were a positive step towards protecting their well-being. However, some expressed concerns about the practical challenges of implementing them, noting that students also text them outside work hours.

None of the teachers can be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Having students’ interests at heart

One secondary school teacher, who declined to give her age, said it would be up to each school how it wished to implement and communicate these guidelines to parents and students. 

Parents may have “varying degrees of what’s important”, she said.

But teachers will sometimes still respond “out of goodwill” if messages come in after school hours, said one secondary school teacher, 29, adding that he uses his own discretion to decide whether to reply when students message him about non-urgent things.

“I will not feel guilty not replying to messages until the next day because generally they’re not urgent,” he said.

“Not all teachers can tune out if they receive messages, though.” 

He said he responds if he thinks that the student has “done due diligence” and is asking “a genuine question”.

Another primary school teacher, 37, who has been teaching for 13 years, said a fair share of parents have messaged her past 5pm and she usually replies in the morning. They usually ask about their kids’ missing items, homework, what items to bring to school and whether their children had to be in school the next day.

“I do reply out of my own free will after hours if it involves the health and well-being of students,” she said. This includes condolence messages when a parent informs her that a relative has died, or acknowledging that a child will not be reporting to school on a particular day. 

Parents said they understand the need for teachers to have their own time after work.

Mrs Jasmine Hallan, who has two daughters aged 10 and 12 in primary school, said she tries her best not to contact their teachers after working hours. 

“I am also a working mother and I treasure my time after work when I can focus on my family,” the 41-year-old marketing manager added.  

She usually uses Class Dojo, a communication platform in schools, to reach teachers, or e-mails them, adding that while her daughters’ teachers are responsive, she does not expect immediate replies. 

“We should not allow the convenience of technology to force teachers to be at our beck and call,” she said. 

Ms Alice Tan, who has two sons in primary school, said she has messaged teachers after work hours about their co-curricular activities, but does not expect instant replies.

The 37-year-old pilates instructor said that she has their teachers’ personal phone numbers, but does not think it is necessary to have them.

“When we have their numbers, we usually have the tendency to message them about anything and everything, so it is probably better for us not to have it,” she said. 

Teachers’ workload

Mr Mike Thiruman, general secretary of the Singapore Teachers’ Union, said the steps MOE is taking help address teachers’ challenges in maintaining work-life balance to some extent.

“Teachers sometimes face unreasonable demands from parents, which can affect their well-being and job satisfaction,” he said, adding that while teachers may not deal with frequent issues from parents, one or two unreasonable ones can significantly impact their well-being.

Other measures from MOE include piloting a process where parents can submit their child’s medical certificates online via Parents Gateway.

Mr Thiruman said: “Teachers feel overworked, not because they have to teach and develop students holistically. They feel overworked because of unnecessary committee work as well as over-programming at the school level.”

The heavy workload is a reality for all teachers and is not sustainable, he said.

“We must actively strive to cut non-meaningful work which is not the core responsibility of a teacher,” he added.

Some teachers said that the root problem – their overall workload – has to be tackled.

For one thing, class sizes could be smaller, said one primary school teacher in her 40s, especially with the growing number of students requiring extra attention due to behavioural or learning needs. 

The male secondary school teacher said that dealing with parents and administrative work is part of a teacher’s overall duties. While setting clearer boundaries between teachers and parents is a good move, significant improvements to teachers’ well-being would be possible only if broader workload issues are addressed, he added.

“Our core responsibilities are quite heavy – teaching, lesson and material preparation, managing students and their well-being,” he said.