KUCHING: Several issues were brought up by the Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) to the Ministry of Education (MoE) for the betterment of the education system and the benefit of the students.
STU president Macky Joseph explained that in a fruitful council meeting from June 14-16 in Miri, various important issues were discussed and resolved.
He added that in the meeting, STU urged the MoE to create a DG56 scale for teachers who had reached the current top DG54 so that they would not stay static until retirement “as this serves to motivate teachers to continue their excellent services.”
“This could well mean that they will remain static for 10 years before the mandatory retirement age of 60 (current DG54 scale).
“The MoE, the schools and the students stand to lose if these teachers opted for early retirement as they have reached the peak of their career,” he explained.
STU also wanted a code of ethics for parents-guardians to promote rapport between them and teachers, he said.
“STU has been involved in the drafting of the code of ethics since 2017, and it was finalised recently. The code of ethics has been submitted to the Sarawak Education Department for further action.
“STU hopes to hear favourable news from the department in the soonest time possible.”
The union also wanted to avoid extra classes during school holidays so that teachers and students could spend quality time with their families.
Before the Gawai-Raya mid-year school holidays, STU received complaints from members, saying they were required to conduct extra classes during the school holidays.
“The union would like to urge the MoE to follow through the Education Minister’s advice (not to hold extra classes) with an official directive,” said Macky.
