Teachers can look forward to a lighter workload.
Ministry to unveil nine ‘interventions’
KUALA LUMPUR: The year 2019 could very well be the one most teachers will look forward to as plans to reduce their burden are underway.
The Education Ministry will announce nine “interventions” on Jan 14 to be implemented at the ministry, state Education Department, district Education office and school levels.
Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said this was to ensure teachers would have more quality time with students in class.
He said his ministry held 16 engagement sessions with the National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) from July until December, some of which were to discuss the factors contributing to the extra burden on teachers.
The 10 factors highlighted are – a diverse range of programmes; preparation of documents and evidence; overlapping of application systems; assessment and exams; administrative tasks; work instructions; pedagogy; lack of allocation; policy and rules; and the issues of structure and optimisation of filling vacancies in schools.
“Teachers have to struggle with clerical work. But the reality is, clerical work does not only exist among teachers but also in other jobs.
“Even the best education system in the world has its own clerical work. The Education Ministry is committed to ensuring that all administrative tasks must be for the purpose of improving the quality of education,” he said in his speech during an NUTP special assembly yesterday.
Dr Maszlee said this would include tasks that were overlapping and irrelevant to teaching and learning, so that teachers could focus on teaching.
He urged teachers nationwide to be patient as time is needed to realise a change.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Dr Maszlee said the ministry had held frequent engagement sessions with NUTP and other stakeholders.
“We want to ensure whatever policy we make, it also comes from the teachers themselves,” he said.
NUTP president Kamarozaman Abd Razak said the teaching fraternity was looking forward to the announcement and to spending more time with their students in class.
“It has been a great year for us. Never in the history of NUTP did we have 16 engagement sessions with the Education Ministry in seven months,” he said.
“We would like to thank Dr Maszlee and his deputy Teo Nie Ching for their efforts.”
Also present during the assembly were NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan Huat Hock and some 1,000 teachers.