As most of you concerned parents of JPS, we have been sending emails to Mrs. Atak for the last weeks and all responses we received were far from constructive.
Besides shallow replies from her secretary:
The 1st one was the famous September 14th letter from Ms. Curtis. No comments. We all agreed it was, if not an insult to us parents, useless.
The 2nd is dated of today from Mrs. Atack herself. Another blabla, empty, pointless one, using averages and, again far from constructive. We do not want averages, we want the excellence in Education our children deserve!
Talking about averages, and referring to the 26 students from Year 1 to Year 6: since some classes have 29 children, what do we have to do to have our children in the lucky-for-the-moment 23-student classes? How can JESS (around the corner) keep up, or should we say, keep down (the number of students per class)?
When, while already enrolled at JPS, our children were accepted at JESS, did we make the wrong choice not moving? Should we go beg now?
When are the lame sentences and empty statements such as "Our commitment and determination to provide high quality education for all children is as high as it has ever been," going to stop. Enough words, we need action.
How logical is it to have 21 – 23 students in FS1 and FS2 with a teacher and a TA and bring these numbers to an "average" of 26 students per class with no TA, when the children stop playing in the sand box and start struggling with spelling, maths etc . . .
Since we are paying these school fees (and very happy to do so, provided the education follows), why do we have to go through hours of daily homework with our children or finance the TA ourselves through a tutor at home?
Finally, and quoting Mr. Varkey in the interview published in The National on July 23rd, 2008: “With Gems we would never say no to anything.”
Well, it is now time to act, if not for the good of our children, for the sake of your education system's future.