Teacher helps students overcome PSLE stress through music
Music teacher Adela Josephine Tandar teaching some of her Primary Six students at Juying Primary School in Jurong West how to play the ukulele.
SINGAPORE — Music teacher Adela Josephine Tandar decided to help her students overcome the stress of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) by encouraging them to pen their own motivational song.
The approach certainly struck a chord with her band of young musicians in Primary Six at Juying Primary School in Jurong West.
The youngsters were determined to give a boost to their schoolmates hit by PSLE jitters, and they emerged as one of the finalists for last year’s Singapore Youth Festival Theme Song Writing Contest, an event organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
Mrs Tandar, 32, told TODAY in an interview on Tuesday (July 2) at the school: “The song they wrote titled, Rainbow after the Storm, was about how there is hope after the PSLE whatever results you get... They (student songwriters) were very stressed out by exams so they wanted to use this song to inspire others.”
Besides songwriting, Mrs Tandar, a specialist music teacher, also teaches her students how to play the ukulele during weekly music lessons. She believes that music does more than just de-stress students.
She said: “We want to nurture the child holistically, not just placing emphasis on their academic performance only. We also want to nurture interest and talent in music as there are pupils who may not be academically inclined but musically inclined.”
Mrs Tandar was one of 12 finalists for this year’s Outstanding Youth in Education Award, run by the MOE. The finalists were selected from 4,103 nominations made by schools and members of the public. In all, 1,380 teachers from 298 schools were nominated.
The award recognises teachers who “have distinguished themselves by helping students discover the joy of learning and nurturing them as resilient problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and individuals with empathy for others,” MOE said in a press release on Tuesday (June 25).
Surprised to have been a finalist, Mrs Tandar said: “I didn’t expect it. Anyway, I did what I am passionate to do, which is music.”
One of her students, 11-year-old Nayli Maisarah, enjoys lessons so much that she hopes to have six periods of music lessons a week, instead of just one.
She said: “Now when my uncle comes over and he sees my ukulele, he will ask me to show him a few chords. He learns the guitar but now he wants to learn the ukulele.”
Mrs Tandar teaches a range of different levels at the school and has only one period of music a week with her Primary Six students. To help give them more guidance, she decided to start a blog with chords and tutorial videos so that they can practise in their free time.
She said: “I always tell the kids that after they graduate I hope everyone can play the ukulele well… If they only practise in school, they will surely forget it. They will know it is a ukulele and that they played it once but they wouldn’t be able to play it.”
Mrs Tandar added that some students still visit her after completing primary school, with some picking up more instruments.
She said: “My biggest joy will always be when they become secondary school kids and they come back to me and say ‘I picked up the electric guitar’. At least you know you planted a seed.”
