Beyond the classroom: 8 teachers receive top honour for helping students flourish

Hafizah Mahmud from Si Ling Primary School (left) and Go Jun Hong from Woodgrove Secondary School are among the educators recognised for their contributions to teaching and education.

ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO

Published Sep 03, 2026, 08:22 PM

Updated Sep 03, 2026, 08:23 PM

Eight teachers in Singapore received the President’s Award for Teachers for their dedication to nurturing students beyond academics.

Teacher Go Jun Hong emphasises understanding students’ unique challenges to support their holistic growth and well-being.

Senior teacher Hafizah Mahmud focuses on building empathy, confidence, and communication skills from Primary 1 to foster lifelong learners.

SINGAPORE – In his fourth year as a science teacher, Go Jun Hong learnt from his school leaders that a former student was struggling to cope in junior college.

Though academically outstanding in secondary school, the student missed the structure and support he was used to and had difficulty adapting to a more demanding curriculum.

Calling it a wake-up call, Go began rethinking his role as an educator and what the end goal should be – to help students grow and flourish beyond the classroom.

“We prepared him for the examinations. But beyond that, he couldn’t cope by himself… And I thought that was really sad,” said Go, currently the head of applied sciences and information and communication technology at Woodgrove Secondary School.

Shifting his focus to holistic growth, Go realised the importance of understanding students’ unique needs and challenges to support them effectively.

This meant looking beyond visible behaviours for underlying issues.

For example, when some students are persistently late or absent from school, he said many assume they are ill-disciplined.

“I realised that with almost everybody I spoke to who presented these sorts of behaviours, they usually have some backstory. Even if I were in their shoes, that’s probably the best that I can do,” he added.

Now in his 13th year as an educator, Go, 39, mentors teachers to design more purposeful student development experiences, and helps form teachers build classroom environments where students feel enabled and cared for.

He was among eight teachers who received the President’s Award for Teachers from President Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Sept 3 for their outstanding work. Established in 1998, the award is the nation’s top honour recognising educators for their excellence and dedication to nurturing the young.

The award recipients with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (centre) at the annual Teachers’ Day Reception on Sept 3. Joining them are Minister for Education Desmond Lee (fifth from left) and Second Minister for Education David Neo (fifth from right). ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO

The award recipients with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (centre) at the annual Teachers’ Day Reception on Sept 3. Joining them are Minister for Education Desmond Lee (fifth from left) and Second Minister for Education David Neo (fifth from right).

A total of 5,125 educators from 308 schools and seven post-secondary education institutions were nominated by school leaders, colleagues, parents, as well as former and current students.

For Go, understanding students’ needs means looking beyond their behaviour.

Go shared the example of a student he encountered in his former role as a year head, who was always 15 minutes late for school. Instead of reprimanding the Secondary 1 boy and instructing him to wake up earlier, Go spoke to him to understand what was going on in his personal life.

The student shared that his family lived in Johor Bahru, and his father would not drive him to the immigration checkpoint. So, he would wake up at 3am every day and walk a long distance to the checkpoint as there was no public transport available.

The school reached out to the parents and got the father to commit to driving the boy to the checkpoint every morning. Later, it also helped source local accommodation for the student on weekdays.

“Children have unique circumstances and needs, including what success means to them. Now I ask myself, ‘What is useful for this child?’, so that I can help them,” he said.

The recipients were selected from 18 finalists by a panel chaired by Darryl David, chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education. The panel included representatives from the Ministry of Education, post-secondary education institutions and the wider community.

Award recipients will be able to participate in an overseas learning programme and share their learnings with the education fraternity. Award finalists will receive a grant to attend either overseas or local conferences, seminars or courses.

Teaching life skills from P1

After a pupil in Hafizah Mahmud’s Primary 1 class approached her to complain about being pushed by a classmate, she thought about how to turn the incident into a teachable moment for all her pupils.

The senior teacher, who is also an award recipient and specialises in the learning needs of lower primary learners, knew what happened was an accident and wanted to teach her young charges how to resolve minor matters on their own.

The next morning, Hafizah showed her pupils images of a man describing a small molehill as a large mountain.

She asked the class what would happen if someone exaggerated a story repeatedly.

“Some of them said it’s like the boy who cried wolf, a story they had heard before,” said Hafizah.

Other responses included being ignored, not being believed and losing friends as a result.

“If I just tell them these reasons, they will not absorb them. But if it comes from them, they can internalise it better, and then they will remember,” she said.

Though lessons like these are not part of the English and mathematics curriculum, the 45-year-old has spent most of her 20 years at Si Ling Primary School finding creative and relatable ways to teach her pupils empathy, confidence, communication and leadership.

Hafizah Mahmud with her Primary 1 pupils from Si Ling Primary School during a lesson on showing care and kindness to others. PHOTO: SI LING PRIMARY SCHOOL

Hafizah Mahmud with her Primary 1 pupils from Si Ling Primary School during a lesson on showing care and kindness to others.

PHOTO: SI LING PRIMARY SCHOOL

In her first few years as a teacher, Hafizah said she was startled to find children entering Primary 1 at vastly different levels of readiness.

“I realised that what happens in the first few years of primary school is very important.”

If a child repeatedly experiences difficulty, it can lead them to think they are not good in that subject. She added that once that belief sets in, learning becomes harder.

“I became increasingly interested about how we can intervene early, while protecting children’s confidence and their joy for learning,” she said.

This meant spending hours building character, teaching them how to look out for each other, and paying close attention to how her pupils were learning so that they remain engaged in lessons.

Though a challenging process, Hafizah said that when teachers consistently make the effort to build a classroom environment where students find purpose in learning, even at Primary 1, and are explicitly taught the language for effective communication, they can become learners for life.

“When my kids move on to upper primary, most of them become prefects. Other teachers can tell that they were from my class because they know how to articulate and express themselves, and take charge,” she said.

“To me, it’s not just about helping them catch up academically, but also helping them believe that ‘I can learn, I can improve, and we all have something to contribute’.”

Elisha Tushara is a correspondent at The Straits Times, specialising in Singapore’s education landscape.

Education and schools

来自思灵小学的哈菲扎·马哈茂德（左）和来自伍德格罗夫中学的吴俊鸿是因其对教学和教育的贡献而受到表彰的教育工作者之一。

圣路易斯照片：德斯蒙德·福

发布于 2026 年 9 月 3 日 晚上 8:22

更新于2026年9月3日晚上8:23

新加坡有八位教师因其在学术之外对学生的培养所做出的贡献而荣获总统教师奖。

高俊洪老师强调理解学生的独特挑战，以支持他们的全面发展和身心健康。

资深教师哈菲扎·马哈茂德致力于从小学一年级开始培养学生的同理心、自信心和沟通技巧，以培养终身学习者。

新加坡——高俊洪担任科学教师的第四年，从学校领导那里得知，他的一名前学生在初级学院学习中遇到了困难。

虽然这名学生在中学时期学业成绩优异，但他怀念以前习惯的结构化环境和支持，难以适应要求更高的课程。

Go 将此视为一次警醒，开始重新思考自己作为教育者的角色以及最终目标应该是什么——帮助学生在课堂之外成长和发展。

“我们帮他准备了考试。但除此之外，他无法独立应对……我觉得这真的很令人难过，”吴先生说道，他目前是伍德格罗夫中学应用科学和信息通信技术系主任。

戈将关注点转移到全面发展上，他意识到了解学生的独特需求和挑战对于有效地支持他们至关重要。

这意味着要透过表面行为去寻找潜在的问题。

例如，他说，当一些学生经常迟到或旷课时，许多人认为他们缺乏纪律。

“我意识到，几乎所有表现出这类行为的人，他们通常都有一些背景故事。即使我身处他们的境地，这大概也是我能做的最好的了，”他补充道。

现年 39 岁的 Go 从事教育工作已有 13 年，他指导教师设计更有目的性的学生发展体验，并帮助教师建立课堂环境，让学生感到有能力和被关爱。

9月3日，他与其他八位教师一同荣获总统教师奖，以表彰他们杰出的教学工作。该奖项设立于1998年，是新加坡最高荣誉，旨在表彰教育工作者在培养青少年方面所展现的卓越才能和奉献精神。

9月3日，在一年一度的教师节招待会上，获奖者与尚达曼总统（中）合影。教育部长李智陞（左五）和第二教育部长梁振英（右五）也出席了招待会。（海峡时报摄影：傅智陞）

9月3日，在一年一度的教师节招待会上，获奖者与尚达曼总统（中）合影。与他们合影的还有教育部长李智陞（左五）和第二教育部长梁振英（右五）。

共有来自 308 所学校和 7 所高等教育机构的 5125 名教育工作者获得提名，提名人包括学校领导、同事、家长以及以前的学生和现在的学生。

对于 Go 来说，了解学生的需求意味着要超越他们的行为。

戈先生分享了他担任年级主任时遇到的一个例子：一个学生总是迟到15分钟。戈先生没有训斥这个中一男生，也没有让他早点起床，而是和他交谈，了解他个人生活中发生了什么事。

这名学生说，他家住在新山，父亲不开车送他去入境检查站。所以，他每天凌晨三点就得起床，步行很远的路去检查站，因为那里没有公共交通工具。

学校联系了孩子的父母，并说服父亲每天早上开车送孩子去检查站。之后，学校还帮助孩子在工作日找到了当地的住宿。

“每个孩子的情况和需求都各不相同，包括他们对成功的定义。现在我会问自己，‘什么对这个孩子有用？’，这样我才能帮助他们，”他说。

获奖者由政府议会教育委员会主席达里尔·戴维主持的评审小组从18名入围者中选出。评审小组成员包括来自教育部、高等教育机构和更广泛社区的代表。

获奖者将有机会参加海外学习项目，并与教育界分享学习成果。入围决赛者将获得资助，用于参加海外或本地的会议、研讨会或课程。

从小学一年级开始教授生活技能

哈菲扎·马哈茂德小学一年级班上的一名学生向她抱怨被同学推搡后，她思考着如何将这件事变成一次教育所有学生的机会。

这位资深教师也是一位获奖者，专门负责低年级小学生的学习需求。她知道这起事件是一场意外，并想教她的小学生们如何自己解决小问题。

第二天早上，哈菲扎给学生们看了一幅画，画中一个人把一个小鼹鼠丘描述成一座大山。

她问全班同学，如果有人反复夸大一个故事会发生什么。

“他们中有些人说这就像‘狼来了’的故事，他们以前就听过这个故事，”哈菲扎说。

其他反应包括被忽视、不被相信，以及因此失去朋友。

“如果我只是告诉他们这些原因，他们是不会吸收的。但如果是他们自己说的，他们就能更好地理解和接受，然后就会记住，”她说。

虽然这类课程并不属于英语和数学课程的范畴，但这位 45 岁的老师在思灵小学任教的 20 年间，一直致力于寻找富有创意且易于理解的方式，来培养学生的同理心、自信心、沟通能力和领导力。

哈菲扎·马哈茂德老师正在给来自思灵小学一年级的学生们上一堂关于关爱他人、善待他人的课。照片：思灵小学

哈菲扎·马哈茂德正在给来自思灵小学的1年级学生上一堂关于如何关爱他人、善待他人的课。

照片：思灵小学

哈菲扎说，在她当老师的头几年里，她惊讶地发现，孩子们进入小学一年级时的准备程度差异很大。

“我意识到小学最初几年的学习非常重要。”

如果孩子反复遇到困难，就可能认为自己不擅长这门科目。她补充说，一旦这种想法形成，学习就会变得更加困难。

“我越来越感兴趣的是，我们如何在早期干预的同时，保护孩子们的自信心和学习乐趣，”她说。

这意味着要花几个小时来培养学生的品格，教他们如何互相照顾，并密切关注学生的学习情况，以便他们能够积极参与课堂。

哈菲扎表示，虽然这是一个充满挑战的过程，但当教师们持续努力营造一个让学生（即使是一年级学生）在课堂上找到学习意义的学习环境，并明确地教授他们有效沟通的语言时，他们就能成为终身学习者。

“我的孩子们升入高年级后，大多数都成为了班长。其他老师一眼就能认出他们是我班上的学生，因为他们善于表达自己的想法，并且能够承担责任，”她说。

“对我来说，这不仅仅是帮助他们赶上学业上的进度，还要帮助他们相信‘我可以学习，我可以进步，我们每个人都能做出贡献’。”

Elisha Tushara 是《海峡时报》的记者，专门报道新加坡的教育领域。

教育和学校