Child abuse in Singapore?

A letter by a Neo Leng Hui appeared in the Today paper appealing to the MOE to start primary school later. And with full day schools, shouldn’t this be easier? Whatever the ‘f’ reasonings, efficiency, convenience, parents can fetch the children before going to work, blah, blah, blah, the current system demands that many primary school children will have to be up by 6am or earlier to get to school on time. The consequences of a system that compelled young children to wake up at the wee hours of the morning cannot be good. Those hours are meant for nocturnal animals. Even adults will have problems waking up in those hours. But clever adults think that it is ok for little children! Waking up at those hours to rush to schools would mean that the children will have difficulties trying to eat their breakfast. The body system may not be ready to consume meals. And rushing food into the body can be a problem too. Very likely the children will have to pack their food to eat when they arrived in schools in more humanly hours. It is not an uncommon sight to see little children slumping at the lift doors or the gates as they were barely await and trying to go back to sleep again. Some parents have to carry them all the way to the cars or buses where they could knock off again. These are terrible sights and a terrible thing to do to our little ones. But the experts in childcare and schoolings may think otherwise. There are social problems too, in the dark hours of the day. Would the parents feel good and comfortable bungling their little ones out of their way to schools? Would it be more sanely and better for children to spend some decent times together during breakfast instead of rush rush and rush, or when the children were all half asleep? Are we abusing our little children for their own good, to go to schools? The efficient tickling of the economic system is more important than the welfare of the little ones?