A Conducive Learning Environment... is also a Safe One
The trend of sexual abuse cases of students involving teachers is on the rise in Singapore.
On 12 February 2017, a higher secondary school teacher in Singapore was charged in the court with 20 counts of sexual penetration with a minor girl in school. Another case involves a 65 year old private tutor molesting an 11 year old student back in 2014. In Malaysia, a male teacher allegedly molested a schoolboy and no action had been taken by the headmaster of the school after more than 10 complaints had been lodged in 2008.
Recently, a music teacher goes on trial for molesting his 18 year old student during a one-on-one private lesson, which led to the young victim performing acts of self-harm by cutting wrists with a pair of scissors.
It is shocking that sexual abuse may also take place in public schools, such as when an art teacher allegedly molested a teenage student.
Effects of Sexual Abuse on children
It is not uncommon for such events to lead to the victim experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). Sexual misconduct may cause its victims to feel traumatic shame, and victims may be too young to know how to express what is going on and how to seek help. This may escalade to a develop into a lifetime of PTSD, depression and anxiety if not treated well.
It is unfortunate that there is a minority of teachers and private tutors who find opportunities to exploit students sexually. There are a few cases of sexual predation by teachers and private tutors over the past few years as cited above.
These cases could have further fuelled the phenomenon of parents, especially mothers of daughters, to be wary of engaging male private tutors.
The threat of sexual abuse in such intimate settings that could be common in private tuition, when tuition is conducted at the tutor's or the student's home without much parental supervision (or even with parental supervision), is real to some parents.
Help is There
There are a few organisations in Singapore, such as the Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) which renders help directly to the victims of sexual misconduct and are easily assessable and discreet. You may contact these organisations for free and their trained service staff will provide assistance to victims and help in the reporting process if required. You may contact them via the following methods:
- Hotline: 6779 0282
- Whatsapp: 9781 4101
- Email: sacc@aware.org.sg
- Office: 5 Dover Crescent #01-22 (Monday to Friday 10am to 7pm)
Learning in a Safe Environment
At Cudy, we believe that a conducive learning environment is also a safe one, especially for our younger learners. Cudy offers online tuition in Singapore for a range of subjects that students need help with.
Aside from the benefits of learning online, there are also reasons such as a safer environment to learn in.
To know that your child is learning at the comfort of their own home and in a safe environment is important. Tutors will no longer have to be physically present during the lessons with your child and yet still deliver the same quality of lessons and content to your child without any loss of quality. You never have to worry about letting different tutors into your house or spending time alone with your child in constant fear.
However, while Cudy offers a much safer alternative to traditional means of receiving academic help, we can only mitigate the the chances of sexual misconduct. Read more about our User Satisfaction policies to find out more about how we manage the safety of our users and our suggested practices for minors on our platform.
