*tsk* Singapore *tsk*

Singapore will be hosting a major education conference in September and has invited distinguished scholars and teachers from throughout the world to share ideas and presentations. One such distinguished teacher is Susan Elliot, the 2009 Colorado State Teacher of the Year and one of four finalists for the 2009 National Teacher of the Year.

According to an article on the blog Teacher Mag , "once the Singapore education officials discovered that Susan was hearing-impaired, they retracted her invitation. The so-called discovery and subsequent retraction of her invitation was an act of disingenuous statesmanship because the Singapore education officials knew all along that Susan was deaf. The official in charge of inviting and then disinviting Susan attributes the mistake to miscommunication."

The writer, Anthony Mullen, asked readers to write their feedback to the MOE officer concerned. Then what seems to be a file note at the end of the article, Mr Mullen said that thanks to the feedback, MOE has re-invited Ms Elliot to the conference.

In the reply letter to a public enquiry that Mr Mullen referred to, the chairman of the Organising Committee has since contacted Ms Elliot and spoken to her personally to convey our sincere apologies."

Er, how did the chairman speak with a hearing-impaired??? Beats me.

So what if Singapore produces some of the world's smartest Math students. This incident just stinks of stupidity and bureaucracy! As my friend said, "Firstly, uninviting someone to a party, not cool. Secondly, RE-inviting, lame. Especially after how the story has been spreading."

I wonder how's the press coverage in Singapore? I hate to be the Comms/Public Relations person at MOE at the moment!