Teacher gets jail term | ||
| By Khushwant Singh | ||
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A TEACHER who changed the examination answers of three of her pupils in the hope of securing better grades for them has been sentenced to jail.
District Judge May Mesenas told Shanthi Krishnasamy, 40, that teachers have a duty to uphold the integrity of the education system.
So the Tamil language teacher fromCanberra Primary School was jailed for two months on Friday on eight counts of forgery in 2007.
In sentencing her, the judge said that Singapore was a meritocratic society where pupils are judged by their performance in examinations.
Cheating cannot be tolerated, she told Shanthi, who blinked away tears.
Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ramu Miyapan had called for a deterrent sentence, given the seriousness of her offences.
He said that what Shanthi did could erode public confidence in the education system and the teaching profession.
But Shanthi's lawyer, Mr Subhas Anandan, argued that the dignity of the teaching profession had not been harmed and pointed out that what she had done was not rampant.
In fact, he added, this was the first case of its kind. Urging the court to be lenient, the lawyer said she was a teacher of 16 years, and was depressed at the time of the offence.
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