MOE to implement measures to reduce teachers’ burden – Maszlee

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Education (MOE) has outlined nine interventions in efforts to reduce the burden of teachers, said its minister Dr Maszlee Malik.

He said the interventions to be announced on Jan 14 came about after 16 engagements sessions were held between the ministry and the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP).

During the sessions held since July, the NUTP provided over 70 proposals to solve the problem.

“The MOE is aware that teachers are being faced with more challenging tasks. The main role of a teacher is to educate our children but now they have been burdened with clerical work and as a result, they are not able to focus on the learning process in the classrooms,” he told a press conference during a NUTP Special Assembly here yesterday.

He said from his first day in the MOE, his main intention was to ensure that teachers were happy and excited in their job.

In January the ministry, state education departments, district education offices and schools would implement the interventions, which had been divided into five initiatives, he added.

“In future, we will have more engagements with the NUTP and other teachers’ associations to enable us to listen to the grassroots and we will adopt this bottom-up approach in formulating policies,” he said.

Also present were NUTP president, Kamarozaman Abdul Razak and secretary-general, Harry Tan Huat Hock.

Earlier the media reported that teachers would no longer be burdened with clerical duties by January next year.

Last August, the ministry reported that 4.4 per cent or 2,123 of 48,258 teachers were identified as having medium to high stress levels. — Bernama

Abdul Karim (centre) leads the cake-cutting ceremony to mark the revival of RBA’s Kuching-Brunei flight. With him are (from second left) STB chief executive officer Sharzede Salleh Askor, ministry’s permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee, Aeberli and Brunei Consul General in Kuching, Mohammad Kamaluddin.