13 July 2021
English teacher Moritza Lim once assisted a student, Alice (not her real name), who had run away from home due to family issues.
In the three weeks that Alice was missing, Ms Lim was in constant contact with her parents. The police eventually managed to find Alice.
Ms Lim also works with students with long-term absenteeism. To tackle this, she reaches out to the students and their parents to remind them of the importance of school. On exam days, she would give the students morning wake-up calls and their parents daily reminders on which paper their child was taking.
Ms Lim was one of six recipients of the Outstanding Youth in Education Award (OYEA) at the National Institute of Education (NIE) Teachers’ Investiture Ceremony. Second Minister for Education Maliki Osman, who was the guest of honour, advised the teachers to embrace lifelong learning and to embrace the challenge of dealing with complex issues like race relations and sexuality education.