Making a Difference

I was so shocked when I fetched Abang from kindergarten last week. As I pulled up in front of the kindergarten, the front gate was wide open and there was no teacher in sight. Abang and some other children were sitting at the bench waiting for their respective transport.

As soon as he saw me, Abang ran (out the wide open gate) to the car. My auntie and Johan were also in the car and I decided this was too important an issue to just let go. When the teacher came out, I got out to point out how dangerous it was for her to leave the children alone like that, especially with the gate open. She mumbled something or other and then immediately closed and stood by the gate to wait for other parents.

I understand they're one teacher short at the moment, and with the kindergarten principal on maternity leave, they're probably stretched thin. Still, the children's safety isn't something they can compromise on. So I decided to SMS the principal to let her know what happened.

I didn't feel nice about "complaining" but it's something quite fundamental, regarding the safety of the children there - MY children! It's not like I'm complaining about anything trivial like "the shoe racks are so rickety" or even "how come my son's English has deteriorated since he started kindergarten?".

This happened on a Wednesday and that night, Abang had a bad case of ear infection and high fever so he was off school for the next two days. He got better over the weekend but on Sunday evening he developed a slight fever again. So we kept him home on Monday too. The next day he went to kindergarten like normal.

On Wednesday, a week after the incident, I fetched Abang from kindergarten and I noticed something very different. The teacher who sees the children off after school seemed more - how shall I say this - attentive and she sent each child to the car, put them in and closed the door after them. For children who get fetched on motorbike, she even carried them and put them up on the motorbike.

I noticed this as I was approaching the school. When I reached the front of the gate (which was closed), the teacher sent Abang to the car, put him in and shut the door. In fact, as she was sending Abang to our car, another mom arrived and her daughter started to make her way out of the school gate but the teacher very firmly told her to wait. After Abang was safely in our car, she sent the girl to her mom.

What a difference an SMS makes! Now I'm glad I sent it. Today, out of the blue, Abang told us that last week his principal was in school for "a meeting". I'm guessing they discussed children's safety.