BY GABRIEL LIHAN
KUCHING: Teachers have a long laundry list for the Ministry of Education ahead of Teacher’s Day today.
They are seeking help, arguing that they are stretched physically and mentally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) President, Adam Prakash said teachers should be left to focus on teaching and developing interesting lessons for children.
‘’Schools should be given better ICT facilities including high speed internet to cope with education in the 21st century.
‘’The MoE should also not introduce policies without preparing teachers prior to the implementation of the polices.’’
Prakash also called for more clerical and administrative staff to be appointed to assist school administrators.
‘’Heads of schools and their assistants should take on their roles effectively and not assign their roles to teachers who are supposed to focus on academic activities,” he added.
He said the upgrading of school buildings and infrastructures in the rural areas needs to be sped up to provide equal and fair opportunities for all school children in the country.
In an interview with New Sarawak Tribune, Prakash said the common problems and challenges faced by teachers have to do with there being too much clerical work, thus causing teachers to not be able to focus on effective teaching.
He said there is no standardised job specs for teachers as different heads of schools have different demands of their teachers.
‘’Thus some teachers are overworked and are burnt out due to unnecessary tasks assigned to teachers that do not benefit the students.
‘‘There is also the problem of too many teaching hours due to shortage of teachers in school, insufficient infrastructure support for teaching.’’
This is causing problems to the teachers and adding more challenges to them especially when class sizes are too big, he disclosed.
Laura Cotter who is a teacher hopes the Ministry of Education (MoE) would empathise with the teachers who are going through a lot both physically or mentally, post pandemic era.
‘’Teachers are overwhelmed by the amount of workload as we now have to cope with the new SOPs implemented since schools have reopened.’’
She added that due to burnouts and being overworked, she hopes that the least the MoE could do is to compensate teachers fairly by increasing the salary of teachers and by doing so teachers may feel acknowledged and appreciated for their efforts.
Another teacher, Jennifer Peter spoke about the need for education methods to improve and hoped for better improvements in its assessments.
‘’We hope to compete with the world, and as teachers hopefully we may be able to explore various branches of knowledge to diversify effective teaching methods and techniques.’’
She also said that the post-pandemic transition has caused a dire need for teachers to transition into online learning.
‘’It’s an everyday learning for us as teachers, to align ourselves to the new norms of education, especially the online learning,’’ stressed Jennifer.
Audrey Ngerong, also a teacher, applauded her fellow teachers for working hard and making sure no learner is left behind.
‘’From adapting lessons to working online, and teaching in areas of extreme difficulty, I hope that every teacher can work in a safe and enabling environment.’’
She also hopes that teachers will be given better tools to foster tomorrow’s citizens.
