Taking Good Care of Pupils
Friday, August 7, 2009
Free haircuts are just one of the initiatives Fuchun Primary School has started to help pupils in financial need.
Every school has rules requiring its pupils to keep their hair neat, but you probably won't find them offering haircut services. At Fuchun Primary School, things are a little different. For pupils who are on MOE's Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) and whose family's per capita income is less than $370, the school has arranged for hairdressers to give them haircuts twice a year - free to the pupils, as the school picks up the tab.
This service came about from the school's collaboration with Share-On Team, a not-for-profit organisation which assists families in need in Marsiling and Woodlands estates. The haircut service was first offered in January this year, when pupils made their way to a void deck near the school to have their free hair cut by a few volunteers with the Share-On Team. During the second round in July, the school paid for hairdressers to come to the school to provide the haircuts over two days, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Three more haircut sessions are planned for the rest of this year.
As Fuchun Primary School's Administration Manager Ms Hamidah recounts, the school publicised the service by sending letters to the parents of pupils who qualified for it. It attracted about 60 pupils, or one-quarter of all pupils on the FAS.
And that's not all this school is doing for its pupils in financial need.
Pupils learned valuable lessons in co-operation and giving when they volunteered their services in the donation drive.
Different outreach efforts
Before it closed for the mid-year holidays, the school prepared holiday food packs for pupils on the FAS, who during term time receive breakfast vouchers for use in the school canteen. Ms Hamidah explains, "Since it's the school holidays, they won't be receiving the breakfast vouchers. We wanted them to continue to eat properly, so we gave them a one-month supply of biscuits and milk."
These food packs and the free haircuts are all paid for with the school's FAS funding. This is a one-time grant of $20,000 it received from MOE this year to provide financial assistance to its pupils. The grant was given to all schools where over 10% of the pupil population are on the FAS.
The school has also created a database of all its needy pupils, including those who are not on MOE's FAS. This helps the school to match pupils in need with other types of funding, such as that from private companies, trust funds, community self-help groups like Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) and Mendaki, Community Development Councils (CDCs), and other agencies.
In July, the free haircut was available over two days on the school premises.
"With this database, we can immediately identify which pupil qualifies for what type of funding. We can then alert the parents by giving the forms to their children," Ms Hamidah says. Although the database is a project in progress, it has already seen some success in matching pupils for a CDAC aid scheme. These were pupils who did not qualify for MOE's FAS because their parents are permanent residents, not Singapore citizens.
Helping however they can
On an interpersonal level, the school relies on its teachers to observe and highlight potential financial problems among its pupils. For example, when a teacher found out that a pupil had been absent from school for an extended period because the parents could not afford the child's bus fares, the school decided to cover the pupil's transport expenses. Parents have also asked the school for help in other areas, all of which are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Beyond providing aid, Fuchun Primary School is also teaching its pupils important lessons about giving, such as by involving them in donation drives aimed at helping the larger community. Pri 6 prefect Siti Nur Hamidah was one such helper in the Share-On Team's annual donation campaign. Last term, she led a team of nine other prefects, all volunteers like her, to plan a donation drive in school.
Pupils and parents responded generously to the donation drive conducted by the school for Share-On Team.
The group raised publicity with posters, elicited parents' support and planned a one-week collection of staple foods like canned items, rice and noodles, which they handed over to Share-On Team to distribute to its beneficiaries. "I volunteered for this project because I wanted to give back to the community," says Siti Nur Hamidah. "My parents were initially worried as they thought the activity might interfere with my revision for the PSLE, but when they saw that I could manage my time well, they were really proud of me."
Whether getting help for its pupils or getting them involved in helping others, Fuchun Primary School has a slate of programmes and ideas that have a meaningful impact on the pupils' lives. They can't take care of everything, but as Administration Manager Ms Hamidah reiterates, "We have limited funds, and our priority is to run our existing programmes well to benefit our pupils in need."