Standard procedure was to put me on observation of other teachers for at least a week, but I was unlucky. I was thrown in and expected to teach on my first day, without any chance to learn from other teachers.

At 8 periods a week, I had to teach almost 5 hours of English in which I am totally untrained in. Every time I entered the classroom, I felt as if I was a fraud, just trying to make time pass as quickly as possible. After the 1st week, the thought of quitting entered my mind.

When I consulted my English HOD about my worries, she actually told me not to think so much and just read from the textbook and cover the syllabus. Which is so wrong, it shocked me.

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I tendered my resignation after 2 weeks. The principal offered me a bargain --- he would take away my English class and make me a Pure Art teacher. So I withdrew my letter from MOE.

But he didn't deliver his side of the bargain. Instead, my English burden shifted from the Sec 2 Express class to a Sec 1 Normal Academic class. According to my HOD, this was a class that the school does not have expectations for, so it didn't matter if I couldn't deliver. The switch was supposedly meant to 'relieve my stress'.

Class 1H was horrible. Two-third of the class consist of boys, who cannot sit still during any of their classes. They would be walking around, chatting or throwing pens at one another. I spent every lesson shouting and screaming at them, threatening detention --- to which they will reply "Detention, detention lor!"

I was also placed as co-form teacher of the Sec 1 Normal Technical class, which was worse than 1H in that they would be chasing, fighting and running in and out of class during lessons. Attempts to control them only invited their laughs. No such thing as teaching during their lessons.

So basically, I felt like an inept teacher for the past 2 months. I was not teaching, but shouting every day. I asked colleagues for advice, but most who handled the same classes confessed they had given up on the students.

Hence I tendered my resignation again after 2 more weeks i.e. after 1 month. I was pissed when MOE issued a letter telling me that "resignation should be taken seriously". As if I didn't! It was the principal who did not keep his word.

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The discipline in the school also greatly disappointed me. Being a cheena school associated with a clan association, I expected it to have strong values and a strict hand. Apparently the current principal does not think discipline is that important.

(1) Students don't even open their mouths to sing the National Anthem and say the Pledge every morning. And all he does is stand on the stage and implore, "Sec 1s, please sing louder."

(2) He came into 1H as he could hear them from the General Office (yes they are that rowdy). I was so happy to see him with the cane, thinking he was finally going to tekan them. Instead, he gave a soft, long-winded story on the cane's history and told them to please keep their volume down. WTH?!!

(3) A colleague complained to me that he dragged a pair of Sec 4 defiant boys to the office for caning. But his concern was dismissed in front of the boys and they were sent free.

I had also personally experienced the scum of the school. During one of my Sec 1 art classes, three Sec 3 gangsters were loitering outside the class, waiting to catch the tiny class monitor for 'a little chat'. Turns out he had reported their girlfriends in the class for handphone usage, and they were there for revenge.

I had to catch a passing male teacher to talk to them, gangster-to-gangster. The girls were so angry they tore up their artworks in my face. I managed to keep my cool and tell them no work = no marks. For the week after that, my husband fetched me from school, just in case.

On my last day of school, I also had to rush into the girl's toilet to handle a girl who had slashed her classmate with a scissors and locked herself in the cubicle.

Sigh. I applied to be a teacher, not a prison warden :(((

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Most of my colleagues, on finding out that I was leaving, expressed their envy. They were tied up in their bond and had no choice. Many said that they would never have signed the bond if they had the chance to take a trial contract like me. They were counting down to the end of the bond so they could escape. Isn't that so sad?

There is a high price to pay for the high salary dished out by MOE.