What are supplementary lessons?

J and C have just finished their semestral examination and then they announced that their supplementary lessons will still continue after the examination. For a long time I've been wondering about the purpose of supplementary lessons. I did a quick check on a couple of dictionaries and the meanings of supplementary that came back were "Added or serving as a supplement: additional" and the second "Added to supply what is wanted; additional; being, or serving as, a supplement". This is where I am a little confused. I've always thought that supplementary lessons are additional lessons. And if they are additional, they should be optional. But they are not. These supplementary classes are compulsory and they are usually conducted twice a week for about two hours. Most of the time, the teachers were using these classes to catch up on classes. It seems that the normal curriculum hours are not sufficient to cover the syllabus.

A couple of years ago, MOE's Teach Less Learn More (TLLM) was every principal's and every teacher's mantra. Teachers were to be given greater flexibility by reducing curriculum content so that they get ‘white space’ or more room to customise their teaching within the same curriculum time. I am not sure whether this has happened yet.

Do not get me wrong - teachers are working very hard and they are introducing various teaching methods to engage the students - project work, problem-based learning, investigative field work. I am very thankful for all the dedicated teachers who put in extra hours to ensure that their students get the most from these activities. However, due to the nature of assessment (pen-and-paper-do-or-die) in the education system, they need to prepare the students to tackle the traditional exam questions. Many of them are using the supplementary lessons to do just that.

Things teachers have to do

C came back with a form from the teacher, requesting for support for the Fruttie Day Programme. The teacher-in-charge of Fruittie Day Programme quoted a survey result reported by the Straits Times (Nov 24, 2007) that while at least 70% of students know about the daily recommended intake of fruit and vegetables, only 24% follow that guideline. The school will declare a day in a week as Fruttie Day and each child will be given a fruit to consume.

This initiative by the school is certainly commendable. However, the amount of extra work (and paperwork) generated for the teacher can be daunting. There will be indemnity forms to be filled up and money to be collected. On the weekly Fruitte Day, teachers will all be mobilised to distribute the fruits to students who have signed up to be in the programme. The teacher-in-charge will probably have to evaluate the programme is successful and write a report.

I'm thinking that we should leave the teachers out of this extra administrative duty and let them concentrate on thier classroom teaching and student development. Parents should be responsible for the child's physical well being. Once the school takes over this responsibility (which looks good on paper), it may give parents an illusion that all is well with the child's fruit intake. A weekly apple is not going to keep the doctor away!

Incidentally, we did not sign up for the programme. Oh yes, we had to explain why ... "We love fruits and we have lots of it each day!"