(by Iceeci of Kiasu Parents Forums, filed under the rants section which the public has restricted access to, dated 16 July 2014)
"Hi all, This will be my first post after getting pissed off with this student care center. Address: HDB Chai Chee #01-74 29A Chai Chee Avenue Singapore 461029 http://www.starland.edu.sg/ Basically I enrolled my son last year ( when he was in P1 ). The student care supervisor ( William ) spoke to me on the phone and his English sounded crappy. So I went down to meet up with him (in Nov 2012) and take a look around the centre. First impression of the school is that it seemed rather old. Second impression was that of the supervisor who wore a extra large polo tee (struck me more as a hawker than in the education business) with a weird accent. After further conversation I realized he was from Indonesia (that explained his weird accent; no offense to indonesian friends, but his spoken English sounded really weird) After that I met his wife who seemed to be local. However, she also spoke with a weird accent. This was followed by the meeting of this man called Gong Gong ( Grandfather in Chinese ). A very friendly aged man. Is this a family business? So anyway I enrolled my son there as there was free tuition and it's like 5mins walk from my home. Why not? So he got started in Dec 2012 to get himself used to things.
First two months of 2013 went well enough. Then during the March holidays when I requested my son to bring back his assessment book for me to check. To my surprise, only 2 chapters were marked for English, Maths and Chinese. Of course I asked him why this was the case. He told me he after completing his work he would place the books in that 'corner' but the teacher didn't go ahead to mark them. I therefore went to the centre to seek answers, and was told by William that my son did not pass any to him for marking. I told him he should try collecting the books weekly and mark them accordingly. For a while the problem seemed resolved.
Then in May it all happened once again. Worst of all during school holidays the centre will be packed like a chicken farm till the kids in student care have to sit along the corridor as the classroom was filled with N1,2 and K1,2 kids. Food there wasn’t impressive. No fruits served till date. I thought there are protocols to follow with regards to the provision of a healthy diet, which should include the serving of fruits at the end of the meal? Anyways for the past one and a half year my son’s results have not improved the slightest bit- his English is still 55%, Math 70% and Mother Tongue 80%. However what really got my beef was the lack of proper security measures to safeguard the child’s physical well-being.
1) Students are allowed to operate various switches within the centre without adult supervision.
2) Any student can leave the premises without written notice of the teachers.
3) Ex students who are now in high schools are allowed to return and play with younger kids.
4) Accidents will never be reported to parents.
5) Nobody is placed in charge of supervising the bathing kids.
This year( 2014) during the March holidays, while my son was at the centre, he played with a pair of scissors and cut himself. However, no one informed me about it. What can I conclude?
1) There are too many students with far too little teachers to watch over them.
2) You get hurt, please self medicate (my son applied a plaster to his cut himself) .
Later in the evening, I had to bring him to A&E just in case he needed stitches. The medical bill was settled through my insurance policy. Worst case of all is what happened on this Monday (14/07/2014). If I am not wrong, switches are fixed a meter above ground level to avoid children from tampering with them as they are rather dangerous for the ignorant and playful young. That morning, there was only another P1 boy apart from my son being present together in the restroom. The boy had to take a bath at 11am before heading to school, however no adult was around to help switch on the heater; I believed all were busy attending to the Kindergarten kids coming to school. Being a helpful child, my son tried to help his friend turn on the heater switch. He tried jumping and tip-toeing to do so. While tip-toeing, he placed his other hand on the wall for balance, not noticing it was in the door gap. This was when the centre supervisor’s daughter accidentally closed the door, slamming shut on my son’s center 3 fingers. My son reported to the supervisor about the accident and he had the audacity to rebuke him : “HOW DARE YOU PUT YOUR HANDS THERE!”
Please, my son is only 8 years old and is in shock, pain and fear. Instead of being shown concern, he was interrogated like what a policeman does to a criminal. Worst of all, my son told me they only took a cursory glance at his fingers, decided he was fine and sent him off. However, later when he went to school, his form teacher sent me a photo of his fingers via Whatsapp, which by then had swelled up, looking like mini bananas. I called the William and questioned him about the accident. From the moment we spoke he became very defensive with saying a single sorry. What type of attitude is this? In the end I had to close my shop and rush to my son school to bring him to A&E. They did an X-Ray and suspected he might have fractured his 3 fingers. The doctor gave instructions to have his fingers secured in a cast and a review with a KK specialist subsequently scheduled for a week later. While the nurses were placing his fingers in a cast, William called me and asked about my son. I told him that my son’s story was much different from his version. He started raising his voice and became defensive, retorting that it was an accident and nobody wanted it to happen.So I started talking about the switch being located at considerable height and he said he knew my son was helping his friend since day 1 of 2014. I told him they should not be allowed to even operate any electrical switch as their hands might be wet and they could get electrocuted. William told me off, insisting that their switches are safe and certified by government agencies, adding that plastic is a bad conductor of electricity. I therefore asked him how about water- is it a good conductor of electricity? He replied yes. Back to SQUARE 1 about the switch. He still is very defensive saying it is 100% safe. I really saw no point talking to a steel headed man, as such I told him I am busy and will speak again. At that moment we both hung up the phone.
On Tuesday morning( 15/07/2014 ), my son returned to the centre. William then spoke to my son in a threatening way: “ SO now I shall record your statement down to verify if you did lie to me or your dad about the incident.” And made my poor son whose fingers were still in a cast (and pain) to repeat exactly what happened that day. When my son got back in the evening, I asked him and he revealed to me about William’s stern interrogation and threats of camera as well as recorders to capture the process. Hey parents, is this how you treat a young kid? Scaring him into submission and hoping to achieve some warped semblance of “victory”? So after much consideration, I decided to withdraw him from this hazardous and unhealthy place with effect from 17/07/14. I went down personally a moment ago and spoke to William. I passed him my son’s A&E bill and requested his immediate reimbursement. Once again, he got very defensive and started an argument, insisting no refund of the deposit will be given back without a month notice. I told him straight in the face that no parent will allow their child to stay in a place where it is so unhealthy and hazardous. At this point, I also mentioned an earlier accident where my son suffered a cut in March, which he seemed to be completely unaware of. I therefore exclaimed: “ Even you were kept in the dark!” He snapped back: “ Who says we were kept in the dark?” So I asked him: “So you knew but didn't tell me? “ He answered: “I didn't know.” I commented: “' So you were kept in the dark la.” Haha simple English and he couldn’t even understand. At this moment he raised his voice and shouted at me in his centre. I was already so pissed off with him not admitting his fault in the switch safety. His wife heard the commotion, came in and tried to pacify both sides. I told him directly, your yelling and denial only goes to prove what type of person you really are. Right in your own education centre you shouted and screamed at a parent who merely wanted justice for his son accident here. He started getting all defensive again, claiming that I was talking loudly, so responded in kind. I told him no teacher should ever shout at a parent even if he is being talked back at in a loud voice. Many students in the centre at that time came over out of curiosity to take a look. Can you imagine a supervisor of a centre shouting at a parent whose kid just got injured and was in a cast ‘thanks’ to the safety protocols of this student care centre? He insisted the accident was entirely not his fault as what done has been cannot be undone.
The switch problem remains unresolved. If any of you or your friends still have children enrolled in this centre, I urge you to leave asap. I have reported this accident to the police and am now waiting for a call from the officer in charge. Please pray for my son that justice will be served in due course."
