Some primary schools are laying down the law on birthday festivities in schools, saying they should be kept to “no-frills” celebrations.

This, they say, will curb concerns about food allergies and the consumption of junk food.

Just as important, it prevents students from making comparisons between the haves and have-nots.

The Straits Times found that at least six schools have issued such guidelines in recent years: Dazhong Primary School, Pei Chun Public School, Geylang Methodist School (Primary), Oasis Primary School, Springdale Primary School and Riverside Primary School.

The Ministry of Education has no policy on this, allowing individual schools to decide.

But some parents whose children are in these schools are unhappy, saying that they celebrated their children’s birthdays in pre-school and should be allowed to continue the custom in primary school.

Housewife Betha Bhanu Valli Kalyani, 36, who has a son in Primary 2 in Springdale Primary, used to mark birthdays with him in pre-school by distributing goody bags containing toys and tidbits to his classmates, in addition to ordering balloons and a cake.

“He used to have celebrations in kindergarten, so I don’t see why he is not allowed to do so now,” she said.

Housewife Geraldine Tan, 41, who has a son in Primary 2 at Holy Innocents’ Primary School, said his school does not discourage such celebrations.

Making comparisons “is part and parcel of life and shielding children from that is a little excessive”, said Ms Tan.

But the schools say that they have their reasons.

In a circular sent in January, Oasis Primary in Punggol told parents not to organise birthday celebrations within the school.

As these celebrations “invariably involve food”, there were concerns that this may trigger food allergies, principal Ong-Chew Lu See wrote in the circular.

“There is also a concern that the students will start to compare between the haves and have-nots,” she added.

“While we want our students to build quality relationships within the class, we do not want to encourage comparison among them.”

That same month, Springdale Primary in Sengkang also told parents to avoid giving birthday goody bags or gifts to other pupils in school, after receiving feedback from parents.

Such guidelines have been in place at Riverside Primary in Woodlands since it opened in 2013.

Instead of celebrating through cakes, gift packs or other items which are brought to school, pupils’ birthdays will be marked through “simple and meaningful” practices like singing a birthday song in class, the school said.

Riverside Primary’s principal, Mrs Sharon Siew, said parents have largely approved of simple birthday celebrations, which promote a healthy lifestyle by reducing the junk food that pupils consume and cultivates a “culture of simplicity and appreciation”.

“Some parents show their love by wanting to celebrate their birthdays in a bigger way, but others love their children in simpler ways…

“Parents have said that this avoids comparison (of material wealth) among pupils,” she told The Straits Times.

Civil servant Nur Azlina, 36, who has a Primary 2 daughter and Primary 1 son in Riverside Primary, likes the school’s “no-frills” stance.

She recounted how her son’s classmate had given out customised pencil cases inscribed with the name of each child during a birthday party in kindergarten and he had asked her if they could do something similar for his birthday.

“Children already start making comparisons at a young age and it makes things difficult for parents who come from different family backgrounds,” said Madam Azlina.

This article was first published on April 18, 2017.
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SINGAPORE – On Sunday night (April 16), pioneer cabinet minister Othman Wok’s daughter Lily was persuading him to turn off the TV and go to sleep.

It was 11.30pm and they were at Singapore General Hospital, where Mr Othman had been warded since April 6 for a chest infection and stomach complications.

Madam Lily, 60, said she usually does the night duty in caring for him.

“I will read some prayers for him and pat him to sleep before I go off,” she recounted his final hours to The Straits Times on Monday (April 17), after Mr Othman died just after noon. He was 92.

She said her father finally went to sleep at 11.45pm, and seemed fine at midnight, although his breathing was laboured.

In the morning, doctors called the family at about 8.40am and said Mr Othman might not survive much longer, so they went immediately to the hospital.

He was placed on a ventilator and breathed his last at 12.21pm.

“We tried our best to take care of him to the best of our ability, but I think God knows better, and you know we are quite happy to let him go. He passed away…peacefully, so we are happy with that,” Madam Lily told reporters during the wake for Mr Othman outside the family home in Kew Avenue in Bedok.

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2017-04-17 13:36:26

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Othman Wok, member of Singapore’s first Cabinet, dies

Source:

The Straits Times

Berita Harian

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Madam Lily, a housewife, described him as a kind and loving father who was also devoted to his work when he was MP for Pasir Panjang constituency from 1963 to 1981.

“We know that we are more or less like his second family compared to his political work. We totally got it and we appreciated that as well,” she said with a laugh.

But he always made time for the family, especially when he returned from his overseas trips as Singapore’s first Minister for Social Affairs, a post he held from 1963 to 1977.

“Whenever he (came) back from his travels, he (spent) at least one night with us, sharing his overseas stories, souvenirs,” she said.

One lesson he often drummed into them was the importance of racial harmony as he lived through the 1964 race riots. He also emphasised humility, she said. “You could be the president’s daughter or the king’s daughter, but humility should be your middle name,” she recalled him saying.

Mr Othman had been in and out of hospital since last November, and his last message to his children was to live peacefully with each other and maintain good relationships with one another, she said.

Madam Lily’s husband Munir Shah, 64, a management consultant who described his father-in-law as kind and compassionate, said he had been frail in recent years.

“He had a good run…It had been a great inning, to use cricket terminology. All of us were well prepared for this eventuality.”

The family had taken his death calmly, he said and added: “Life in this world is just a transient passage, so for us it’s a journey that would not end here but in the hereafter.”

Mr Othman had led a very fulfilled life for 92 years, said Madam Lily.

“We hope that he will always be remembered as part of the Singapore Old Guard and a contributor to the harmony of Singapore,” she added.

The public can pay their respects at his home at 46 Kew Avenue on Monday night and Tuesday morning (April 18)from 6.30am till 11am.

The family would like to grieve in private for the last hour before the cortege leaves for the mosque at noon on Tuesday.

This article was first published on April 17, 2017.
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Madam Tan Lai Choo, 52, was on her way to take the bus to work yesterday morning when she noticed police cars and a commotion at Block 472, Segar Road.

She immediately thought of her father, Mr Tan Kim Leng, who regularly spends his mornings at the void deck beneath the block. Her fears were confirmed when she walked over to find her father had been attacked by a monkey.

The 77-year-old retiree had been sitting on a bench at around 7am when a monkey came from behind and bit his leg. Two passers-by called an ambulance and helped to stop the bleeding.

He now requires surgery, Madam Tan told The New Paper, and is warded at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

“I just want people to know that monkeys can be dangerous,” she said.

The attack did not surprise the area’s residents, who have encountered monkey problems in the last few months.

A resident of Block 472, housewife Rohana Ismail, 55, told TNP: “The monkeys come inside (our homes) and steal fruits and have scratched a few children at the playground.

“It has gone from bad to worse and something should be done before they hurt more people.”

Mr Murugaian Elango, who also lives in Block 472, said monkeys climbed into his flat on the fourth storey 10 days ago, biting his elderly mother. She went to the hospital to get an injection.

Mr Elango filed a report of the incident with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), as have other residents.

A resident of Block 471, who was bitten by a monkey that entered her flat on the seventh storey, has even taken to placing flyers in the lift to warn her neighbours to close their doors and windows to prevent the monkeys from sneaking in.

Earlier this month, citizen journalism site Stomp reported two other cases involving monkeys chasing a woman and breaking into flats in Segar Road.

These blocks are close to Zhenghua Nature Park, which was expanded in 2015 and is a green buffer for the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

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The AVA told TNP it had received about 160 feedback on money attacks and nuisance in the Segar area since last October.

After surveillance, it deemed the monkeys as a public safety risk and has been conducting “monkey control operations” in the area, catching one monkey in November.

“Catching the monkeys can be challenging as they are very nimble. The many high-rise buildings in the area also make it easy for the monkeys to be out of reach by climbing up the blocks,” an AVA spokesman said, adding that it is working with the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society.

AVA has worked with the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council to prune trees and harvest fruits from trees to mitigate the situation.

This article was first published on April 18, 2017.
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