Engage school before engaging social media, parents advised
KUCHING: Sarawak Teachers Union ( STU) wants parents or guardians to communicate with schools on any problems their children might encounter before engaging social media with onesided stories.
Its president Jisin Nyud has therefore urged the Ministry of Education to support and approve a code of ethics for parents or guardians when dealing with education institutions, including schools, as presented by the National Union of the Teaching Profession ( NUTP) last Wednesday.
“We want all parents, whose children may come across any problems in school or with teachers, to personally make a trip to the school to find out and discuss the overall and real situation first, instead of posting issues on social media like Facebook or Twitter, and going to the police,” he told a press conference yesterday.
“We don’t want them to just listen to one side of the story as from their child’s experience alone. Putting a one-sided opinion on social media is unfair to the school or any party involved which, in turn, will have an adverse effect on the entire school.”
Jisin said this was one of the resolutions adopted during the union’s third Executive Council Meeting held at a hotel here. It was attended by secretaries from Kuching to Limbang.
Jisin reminded parents and guardians to observe proper etiquette, good manners, and a decent general appearance (includes dressing) when coming to school.
The NUTP has outlined a code of ethics for parents/guardians containing 23 elements in dealing with education institutions such as schools, vocational colleges, matriculation centres, and teacher education institutes.
Of the 23 elements, 15 were on matters to be adhered to by the parents and guardians while the rest touch on things to be avoided.
Among the NUTP proposals was for parents and guardians to, at the very least, communicate with the management of the education institution before reporting any case to the police.
Apart from that, based on security policy, parents and guardians should not carry to school helmets or items that could be used as weapons.
They are not allowed to abuse teachers by sending threatening messages via email, text, voice mail, phone call or written communication on social media.
“We are concerned about this issue because teachers cannot do their work peacefully in school when their safety and security is at risk - anything negative would have an impact on them,” Jisin pointed out.
The other resolutions were urging the Ministry of Education to create Grade DG56 for the teaching profession, and get internet providers in Sarawak to speed up their service.
He said the salary scale for the education service group is only up to DG54 at present, with most principals and officers in management and professional support already in this grade.
“As for internet speed and coverage, I think this is crucial and urgent to enable teachers to integrate online learning in schools – more importantly in rural schools,” he continued.
“How is it possible for schools and teachers to implement 21st- century learning, which the education sector has been promoting, when the internet speed is so slow?” he asked.
In fact, many schools in the state had already integrated the online learning facility, but there is lack of effectiveness due to slow internet speed, he pointed out.