S’pore Teacher Wrote Harsh FB Post About ‘Irresponsible’ Parents & Had To Quit Her Job

Being a teacher in Singapore isn’t easy.

It’s like a return to our good old days of one-child policy where every kid is a treasure.

Every time you scold or punish a kid, you’re putting your job on the line. Because if the durian runs home to complain to the father or mother strawberry, they’ll come for you faster than you can say Fruit Ninja.

But this one teacher decides to stand up for all the kids in Singapore via the most public way possible.

Facebook.

Teacher Vs Parents in S’pore

Ms Lenny Rahman is a 34-year-old PE teacher in Singapore.

She was taking primary one students for a class and got them to label body parts.

However, she realised that there are kids in the class who do not know how to read. It was added that they cannot recognise words like “he”, “she”, “it”, “the” or “is”.

And that’s when she decided to write a harsh Facebook post to parents out there.

Here’s her post (in point form) in case you find it TL; DR:

• She was “baffled” that there are primary one kids who still don’t know how to read.
• It was insinuated that most of the parents she’s talking about belongs to “a particular race”.
• Her Facebook post suggested that if parents who are “busy working” or “don’t have the means” to contribute to their child’s basic education, they should not have kids.
• “Please, if you think you don’t have the means, there are these things called condoms and birth control. They’re cheaper than raising a child.”
• She feels that if you deprive your child of “basic education”, it’s like “depriving your child of a better future.”

The Facebook post went viral almost overnight, resulting in over 1,000 shares and plenty of reactions.

Netizens Reaction

The parent vs teacher debate is pretty much a white elephant in the room.

Everybody feels strongly about it but no one mentions it. Much. Unless you’re Ms Lenny Rahman, that is.

After all, it’s like throwing a molotov cocktail into a pool of natural gas deposit in Arab.

One parent lambasts against Ms Rahman, saying that not all kids are the same. Some might be “slower” than others.

“Parents pay the school fees, which also indirectly pay for the teacher’s salary. Why should the teacher talk bad about her ‘client’?”

Another commenter, ironically, cemented the mindset of parents today. Their kids are precious but they expect other people to solve their problem for them.

To which Ms Rahman said:

You don’t have to send them to tuition centres. Just…you know…do your part as a parent.

Netizens have also tracked down the school she worked at and said they’ll “make her life a living hell”.

Concerned for her own safety and the school’s reputation, she volunteered to leave her post as an adjunct teacher at the school.

She Had No Regrets Though

So, back to Ms Rahman.

She had apologised for her initial (viral) post, which was harsh towards parents, and said it was all done in a bid to “raise awareness”.

But when interviewed, she said she has no regrets (inferred).

She was intentionally harsh in her Facebook post because she wanted parents “who were not helping their child” to have a wake-up call.

It was added that her post was not directed at parents who are already helping their kids at home.

Plus, she said, there was some good out of the whole saga.

Some of the parents have started bringing their children to the public library, or have started reading with their kids.