Chairman of All Saints’ School Board of Management Ms Lim Mui Len (pic), said the Principal’s measure was not a “segregation” but a temporary solution until more teachers were sent to the school.
Ms Lim said hasty accusations began to surface when the principal decided to arrange all Form 1 students taking Pendidikan Islam – PI into two classes, namely Lavender and Violet – while the other Form 1 students who were required to take Moral Lessons were placed in the other four classes, namely Cherry, Jasmine, Petunia and Tulip.
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“This arrangement was a temporary solution until such time more teachers were transferred to the school,” she said, stressing there was never any intention on the school’s part to practise segregation.
“The arrangement was an administrative decision of the school to ensure that the teaching and learning for PI was maximised and the time for it was fully used, meaning 8 periods of 30 minutes each per week,” Lim said.
“However, the school has decided to revert to the old system of integrated–student class arrangement at the beginning of the second school term starting 1 April,” Ms Lim said.
“At the same time the school shall try to overcome the teacher shortage problem by appealing to the authorities concerned. All Saints is a premier Mission school which throughout its 116-year history has successfully educated tens of thousands of students professing different religions, races and ethnic backgrounds,” Ms Lim noted.
“With All Saints’ good academic track record and excellent pastoral care, its popularity continued to increase and this year’s Form 1 enrollment reached an average of 55 students per class with a total of six classes,” Ms Lim said.
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“The school’s classrooms were designed to accommodate a maximum of forty (40) students which therefore resulted in over-crowding in the Form 1 classes.”
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“Despite the teacher and classroom shortage problems faced by the school and the accompanying issues of supervision of students and their safety, the school strives to provide a fair all-round education to all its students,” she said.
