I was flabbergasted when I read about Ms Lenny Rahman attributing a pupil's inability to read certain words to negligence on the part of his parents (Who should teach kids to read: Teachers or parents?; Jan 28).

Instead of probing further to understand his situation and giving the feedback to his English teacher, her instinctive reaction was to blame his parents for it.

Saying that parents should be responsible for helping children to read is similar to saying that individuals should be answerable for their own achievements in education and life. Both are neither helpful nor illuminating.

Where able and if circumstances allow for it, people will naturally aim to do better in life and help their children to do so.

We should, instead, ask ourselves whether our educational system today is doing enough to equip our pupils with fundamental skills, like reading.

We may be taking this for granted given the increasing levels of affluence and education of parents, who are able to read and send their children to phonics classes as early as at the age of two.

In a hypothetical situation where 90 per cent of the pupils at a certain level are able to fulfil the reading requirements, what are the standard operating procedures in place to help the 10 per cent?

In a bid to "teach less", have we inadvertently created a situation where the onus is now placed more heavily and unfairly on individuals to fill the knowledge gap?

What happens then to those who are depending on the system to help them cover sufficient ground to excel?

Following the incident, there have been discussions about the importance of parental involvement and suggestions on how parents can help.

But let's be clear - the school and public education system must serve as the key and primary means through which our pupils acquire basic skills, such as literacy.

Given the number of hours children spend in school, there is no comparable substitute.

While our education system has been lauded for its performance in global education rankings like Pisa, its success should also be measured by how well it serves those who have not been "enriched" through private classes and their parents' own resources.

Leonard Tan