‘Teachers’ burden to be reduced by 25pc’
SERDANG: Five initiatives and nine interventions will be introduced under the Education Mandate 2019 to reduce teachers’ burden by 25 per cent, says Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.
The first initiative, he said, would ease filing and documentation, where three interventions would be applied to ease the textbook borrowing scheme, filing of committee files and recording of classroom assessments.
Maszlee, speaking to a crowd of 3,000 people consisting of teachers, academicians, state education exco members and non-governmental organisations at Universiti Putra Malaysia, said second in the list was the online system and data management, where all data compiling must be taken from data sources in the ministry’s system.
“The attendance of students will be recorded online so that teachers will no longer need to record it manually.”
On the possible use of technology in taking students’ attendance, he said in future, facial recognition technology could be used in schools.
The next initiative, he said, would see schools being given autonomy to administer their literacy and numeration (Linus) programme.
“The Linus programme will be done according to the school’s system. Students’ needs will be taken into account since there will no longer be examinations for Years 1, 2, and 3.
“Another initiative is to streamline the monitoring process to ensure that teachers are no longer burdened with filling forms on cleanliness, safety and the rating of school canteens.”
Maszlee said the final initiative was to streamline the formation of school committees to ensure that non-academic-related positions were abolished.
He said all five initiatives were the first step in ensuring improved teaching quality, while the second step was to include training for teachers to implement the best teaching methods.
At the event, Maszlee announced that there were only 92 left of the 394 dilapidated school upgrading projects nationwide, with an allocation of RM1.703 billion, still in development.
He said they were expected to be completed by March.
Up to Dec 31, 237 (60 per cent) of projects have been completed, and 65 (17 per cent) projects have yet to receive certificates of practical completion.
Maszlee, in his speech, paid tribute to his former teacher, whom he said was the inspiration behind his 30-year ambition to become a minister.
Pausing repeatedly as he was overcome with emotion, Maszlee spoke about how he was inspired by Ustaz Sakijan Murni and the challenges that he had faced in realising his dream.
“The teacher who triggered my hope and ambition at the age of 15 was only an ordinary educator but he had never passed an examination.
“He only went back to school at the age of 18 to sit the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia examinations.
“He furthered his studies at Universiti Malaya before becoming a teacher,” he said.
Maszlee said Sakijan, who was his Islamic Studies teacher at Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar, Johor Baru, encouraged his students to question everything, including religion.
“Ustaz was the first person to teach me how to apply higher order thinking skills before it was even introduced in the syllabus.
“Thank you for everything, Ustaz,” he said to Sakijan, 64, who was seated in the front row with his wife, Rokiah Jamal.