LESS WORK, MORE TEACHING BY TEACHERS
Ministry drafting plan by December to ensure teachers focus on teaching
THE Education Ministry is aiming to relieve teachers from the burden of administrative duties beginning next year. Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said instead of being burdened with administrative work, teachers should focus on nurturing and educating their students.
He said the ministry was drafting a plan to ensure that teachers returned to their main focus, which was to make learning a funfilled and memorable experience.
“The ministry is drawing up plans, which will be presented to me by December, to ease the burden of teachers. Hopefully, teachers will not have to shoulder administrative work by next year,” he said after officiating the National SJKC Bahasa Melayu Improvement Forum at HGH Convention Centre here yesterday.
Present were Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching and event organising chairman Datuk Eddie Heng.
Maszlee said it was time to bring back the “good old days” of educating, especially in the 1980s, when “hero” teachers were loved and respected.
“Teachers used to love teaching and took pride in their work because that was their main focus. Today, there is too much administrative work for them.
“Many of us remember our teachers because it was a fun experience.
“They (teachers) treated us like their children because they had time to nurture and get to know us. This is important for primary school pupils.
“We hope to change this by next year.”
Maszlee said watching Tan Sri P. Ramlee movies as well as cartoons, such as Upin dan Ipin, could serve as learning tools for pupils to hone their command of Bahasa Melayu. All schools, he said, should conduct fun-filled language programmes to boost the pupils’ mastery of Bahasa Melayu, including those from Chinese and Tamil schools.
The teaching of any language, he said, was not a political matter but should be a bond that united all students.
“We will not force the teaching of Bahasa Melayu, but we hope schools will engage students through sports, food fairs and curricular activities. Memorising is not the best way to learn any language; it should be taught through videos and dramas.
“Cartoons such as Upin dan Ipin and movies by the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee are great lesson tools, not only in teaching a language, but to also foster unity among students.”
He said love, happiness and mutual respect should be the core of teaching any subject.
“If it is forced on students, they will learn it only for the sake of learning and might never use it in the future.”