Teachers say guidelines are a positive step, but worry about implementation

When Ms D (not her real name) first started teaching in a primary school in 2012, she received a phone call one weekend from a pupil's father asking to borrow money.

- Gabrielle Chan

She did not know why he had to borrow money, but was more worried about whether her pupil was in trouble, she said.

Ms D, who is in her 30s, said her pupil had told his father that "laoshi (teacher) is very nice, she will always help us", which caused her to lose sleep and made her feel guilty that the boy was caught in the middle.

She did not lend any money to the father, telling him it was not appropriate for her to do so.

"I was not able to draw clear boundaries because all I wanted was to be a good teacher, and I thought then I should answer parents' queries as quickly as possible," she said.

Separately, a secondary school teacher, also in her 30s and speaking anonymously, said a parent hounded her with text messages after school, complaining about her son's excessive phone use and demanding updates on the school's actions regarding phone usage.

The conversation over WhatsApp lasted until the next morning, when the teacher eventually stopped replying.

To set boundaries, she later bought a work line that she registered as a WhatsApp business account, which she said helped "preserve professional relationships". This means she can still receive messages on her phone and respond to urgent ones, but an automated business message is generated after school hours as a response.

The hope is that such interactions about non-urgent matters between teachers and parents will be minimised with new guidelines to set clearer expectations and boundaries.