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'Slave-driver' who was loved

July 3, 2012 - 2:22am

By: 

Judith Tan

PHOTO COURTESY OF IRVING NEO

She was so efficient when it came to running a school that she was given the nickname “slave-driver”.

And she was equally efficient when it came to running her family, it seems.

Mrs Bertha Neo (above), principal of Rosyth Primary from 1959 to 1978, died in her sleep at home on Saturday. She was 89.

Mrs Mary Lau, 73, a retired teacher and her friend for 50 years, said Mrs Neo not only drove the teachers to giving their best, she drove herself to do the same.

She also remembered how Mrs Neo wanted to make sure she brought out the potential of every teacher.

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Comments

Submitted by Ronnie Lim on July 4, 2012 - 9:15am

At the age of 18, I was one of a few young trainee teachers who started

out at Rosyth School in 1963. I found her a no nonsense but very fair

and motherly person. As trainee teachers, we had to write teaching notes

known as "lesson notes" for every single lesson. She demanded proper

sentences and not notes so it was like writing an essay for every lesson

we taught. She took pains to go through the "notes". If she spotted

grammatically errors, woe be on us, we had to stay back after school

(like detention class) for a one to one English grammar remedial

lesson. It may sound intimidating but I picked up many pointers from her

along the way. Mrs Neo was indeed an exemplary role model. During

school vacations, she would organise staff bonding camps where she and

her husband would cook and look after us like her children. Her husband

was a fishing enthusiast who taught me the various knots associated with

tying fish hooks, sinkers and lines. RIP Mrs Neo.

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