Teachers still waiting for paperwork to end
I REFER to the report “1MDB not part of new History syllabus” (The Star, Dec 5) on Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik’s press secretary clarifying that the minister did not say the 1MDB case would be part of the new History syllabus.
He explained that Dr Maszlee just said he wanted the 1MDB case included in Malaysian history but whether it will be included in the syllabus will depend on the Education Ministry’s curriculum study committee.
How would the minister include the 1MDB saga in the education syllabus if not through textbooks? Would he use his social media, blog or his ministry’s publicity organ?
This entire episode should serve as a lesson to learn for politicians when they are speaking in Parliament.
Watching the video of the Parliament session accompanying the report in The Star, Dr Maszlee must realise when replying to the question posed by MP for Pontian Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan that he was answering in his capacity as Education Minister and not as the man on the street and what he says carried a lot of weight.
Fortunately for them, MPs are protected by Parliamentary immunity from civil or criminal proceedings for anything done or said in the House.
Having said that, I do hope the Education Minister would recommend adding events of historical significance in our History textbooks. The current syllabus is in dire need of stating the facts as they are and not sugar-coated for political survival. Simply put, we need facts on how a nation of people of different creeds and race decided to beat all odds without bloodshed and free the country from the colonialists.
We also need the Lahad Datu intrusion a few years ago to be included in our History books. Do any of us know the names of the officers in the security forces who gave their life protecting the sovereignty of our country after the foreign militants invaded Lahad Datu on Feb 11, 2013? Now that should go into our History books.
Sadly, the education system has become a tool for achieving political goals. The countless flip-flop policies over the years attest to this. It has been months under a new government now but the woes of teachers have not been addressed at all.
For years, teachers have been piled with unnecessary paperwork not related to teaching. As recently as a few weeks ago, teachers had to fill up a form (My Portfolio) stating the same particulars we have put in so many times in other platforms.
Each time we fill up a digital form, it’s on a different platform. Why can’t the information be shared across these platforms so that we would not need to fill up forms over and over again?
The only visible change stated in black and white for now is the colour of shoes for students.
Every teacher rejoiced when the current Education Minister stated that he would implement a teacher’s assistant system to ease the paperwork. It’s now December and we still haven’t heard any news about this yet.
While the Education Minister is excited about putting the 1MDB saga in the History books, I hope he doesn’t end up making history as the shortest serving Education Minister in Malaysia.
By the way, the answer to Ahmad Maslan’s question on what events can be defined as historical can be found in Chapter 1 of the Form One History textbook published by the Education Ministry.