Reshuffle of Classes

When Miss Gan, the Senior Assistant of Curriculum, told Mr Thye the news, he was updating his personal information on a Ministry website for teachers.

                “You won’t be teaching Form 4B after the mid-semester break,” she said. “Madam Hu will replace you and you will take over her 2D.”

                The news caused a pang in the heart of Mr Thye. He had been teaching 4B for five months and was getting the hang of it. He had introduced a number of language games to the students and had exposed them to different genres of writing through the reading of photocopied extracts from novels. He could not for the life of him figure out what was wrong with his teaching. He had been trying his best all this while.

                Mr Thye looked sideways at Miss Gan, who was waiting for his response with a smile. He knew all too well what was hidden beneath that smile. It was expecting acquiescence, for she was acting on the Principal’s directions. For weeks the reshuffle of classes had been the talk of the teachers in the staffroom. The Principal had been unhappy with the teaching of some of the teachers, and to address the problem he had developed a plan whereby competent teachers would swap classes with less competent teachers.

                Mr Thye found the whole thing farcical. The school did not do him justice. The reshuffle categorically denied all his hard work. His replacement wouldn’t be interested in continuing what he had done with the class. As the saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean. Madam Hu would tell the students to begin the new term afresh and what he had done would turn to ashes.

                Mr. Thye had been teaching the lower secondary students at St. Joseph’s School for eighteen years. Eager to break the monotony by teaching an upper secondary class, he had applied for this umpteen times during the past six years but with no success. Finally, on the recommendation of Madam Jenny, the Head of the Language Department, he had been given a Form Four class this year. The class, 4B, was small, with only seventeen students. Mr. Thye was thankful to work with such a manageable number of students. He had carried out many self-devised activities with the students, and he was encouraged by the results these had yielded. Things seemed to be all right in the first two months, but from March onwards the staffroom had begun to fill with rumours that he had not been doing anything with his students. Agitated by the unfounded accusation, Mr. Thye had tried practically every means to discover the culprit but to no avail. From time to time, he received many rebukes from Madam Jenny, who pointed out that all his classroom activities had deviated from the syllabus. Confident that everything he had taught was in keeping with the syllabus, he told Madam Jenny that he knew what he was doing.

                “Teaching straight from the textbooks is boring,” Mr. Thye had always stubbornly thought to himself. “If that is what she wants, I will keep teaching in my own way to prove her wrong.”

                Madam Jenny and her lapdogs called him an anti-textbook teacher. Whenever Mr Thye heard this, he would give a shrug of indifference. Although he found them boring, he still went through some of the suggested activities with the students. If he found them inappropriate, he would alter them to suit the students’ heterogeneous learning styles. Having taught English for nearly twenty years, he realized that the only way to capture the students’ attention was to improvise textbook activities in a creative manner. For many years he had taught straight from the textbooks, but he found that this killed the students’ interest. He tried a different approach this year, but this drew criticism from Madam Jenny and many other teachers, who were advocates of the conservative teaching that dominated at his school. In their lessons, the students were extremely quiet and dared not move a limb. In contrast, Mr. Thye’s lessons were always buzzing with merry chatter and laughter. Sometimes, the Principal stood on his roost outside Mr Thye’s classroom, casting him a look of disapproval through the gaps in the window panes. The big cheese’s image of a perfect classroom was a teacher talking at length about a topic and the students sitting silently like stumps. Come on! It’s the twenty-first century. The students learn better in a livelier environment.

                “Mr Thye,” repeated Miss Gan, “what do you think of the Principal’s decision?”

               “I’ve no comment,” said Mr Thye, shrugging. There was nothing he could do. The authority had made the decision. Saying no would only make a dissident out of him.

                “2D is a weak class,” said Miss Gan. “Remember to try your very best to teach them.”

                “I will.”

                “Teach straight from the textbooks,” Miss Gan reminded him. “This is how we standardize our teaching.”

                Mr Thye nodded and switched off the computer before he returned to his seat. He was utterly disappointed with the whole affair. He was sad to leave 4B, but fighting to remain teaching the class would only worsen the situation. Nowadays, all educational periodicals stress the importance of creative, hands-on teaching and learning styles. What his school was doing did not conform to the latest educational trends.

                Mr Thye didn’t mind teaching the weak class. He knew he would go on teaching in his own way. Although he was criticized for his audacity, he believed that it would benefit his students in the long run. “I am sure that sooner or later the school will be rife with the same scuttlebutt about me,” thought Mr Thye. “But I know I am right. If the school can no longer put up with me, I can always apply for a transfer. My services may be needed elsewhere.”