MOE should address potential drawbacks of new app for parents
The new mobile application by MOE may help improve communication between schools and parents, but parents should not go overboard with this convenience and expect teachers to be at their beck and call 24/7, a reader says.
I applaud the move by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to introduce a new mobile application, Parents Gateway, as a means of communication between the school and parents. The app, launched on Jan 2, supports the administrative work of teachers, such as allowing parents to give consent to their children to take part in school activities.
However, there are a few pointers MOE should take note of.
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First, I foresee that there might be parents who will demand that teachers upload a laundry list of the class’ daily homework, in order keep track of what their child needs to do.
Last year, before to the introduction of this app, I was conversing with an ex-teacher of mine and she lamented how some parents in her upper primary class wanted her to do so, through a similar app they were using called ClassDojo.
MOE needs to draw the line here and not give in to such demands.
The onus should still be on students, for example, to note down assignments they have to complete and learn to take personal responsibility for their tasks.
While the new app helps in streamlining certain administrative tasks, it should not slide to a stage where students shirk their responsibilities. They should continue to learn and keep track of their work and instructions from teachers, not depending on their parents to do these for them or spoon-feed them.
Secondly, as much as this app improves communication between the school and parents, parents should not go overboard with this convenience and expect teachers to be at their beck and call 24/7.
This issue may potentially surface if MOE decides, in future, to incorporate more functions into the app, such as instant messaging.
There ought to be guidelines set by MOE, such that teachers are not obliged to answer queries from parents after office hours, barring exigencies. The same should apply to other existing communication channels such as telephone calls and emails.
Teachers, like every other employee, deserve to have a clear demarcation between work and personal time, too.
