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Teachers in a trap
By PRIYA KULASAGARAN
From filing paperwork to organising events and managing irate parents, teachers today are feeling pressured from everything else — save the act of teaching itself.
educate@thestar.com.my
LIKE many of her fellow educators, Kelantanese primary school teacher Mazi* has a few gripes about her work.
The main issue for me is getting pupils to take an interest in learning,” she says.
“Some of them are living well below the poverty line, and their parents are not too bothered about whether they do well in school or not.
“I feel like half my time in class is spent motivating these children instead of teaching them.”
She adds that her school’s physical infrastructure serves to add to pupils’ disinterest.
“I’m not talking about newer buildings or better classrooms - just basics like functioning school toilets.
“When the learning environment is not conducive, it makes it all the more harder to get pupils to care about education.”
More than enough: A 2005 survey found that seven out of 10 teachers suffer from stress, one of the main reasons of which is too much paper work that have little to do with teaching.
Mazi sees these problems as part and parcel of her job.
At the end of the day, teaching is all about nuturing students and achieving this with whatever resources you have,” she says.
It seems that for most, however, the burdens of teaching may be just too much to bear.
Just earlier this month, it was reported that teachers were considering holding a demonstration to highlight their plight of being laden with “irrelevant work”.
National Union of the Teaching Profession president Hashim Adnan was quoted saying that overzealous state education department heads and excessive paper work has affected teaching quality.
‘’We are mostly doing clerical work in schools and among our duties include collecting irrelevant data, attending courses, organising programmes and doing correspondence work.
‘’Also, since some schools were now Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi, we are required to do plenty of documentation work every day ... we are unable to focus in class,’’ Hashim said.
Plans for the protest have since been shelved, as the NUTP has made arrangements with the Education Ministry and is scheduled to meet Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to resolve these issues.
Suffice to say, these grouses have been brought up by the union time and time again.
In a survey carried out by the NUTP in 2005, it was reported that almost seven out of 10 teachers say that they are under stress.
When contacted for this article, the NUTP declined any comment.
Duty juggling
For some teachers, pushing paper appears to be the most tedious aspect of their working day.
“Aside from marking students’ essays and homework, we have to fill out their personal records, health records and various assessment reports,” says secondary school teacher Sharon*.
“Activities such as the Nilam reading programme may sound good in theory, but in reality they just provide an abundance of new forms to fill up.
“In order to be able to cope, I sometimes ask school prefects or class monitors to help me fill in the reports — it’s not something I’m proud of, but it leaves me time to do some actual teaching.”
Currently posted in a boarding school, Wati* says that organising school events takes up too much time.
Teachers have to balance the difficult task of managing parents’ expectations for a string of A’s and instilling a love for learning in their students.
“We have to coordinate sports days, graduation days, camps, competitions — all of which are taxing.
“While the bigger events do hold relevance for the students, a good deal of these activities fail to achieve much besides pomp and an excuse for students to be out of class,” she says.
Yeo* says that it is not uncommon for teachers to juggle various roles at one go.
“Although my teachers’ training option was English, I now teach History in addition to my English classes,” she says.
“Under the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English policy (PPSMI), I was also roped in to help the Mathematics teacher because her command of English was quite poor.
“I also act as the adviser of the school’s English society and volleyball team — this involves staying back late in school at least twice a week.”
Yeo adds that the responsibilities given have left her with little time to focus on developing her skills.
“I barely have time to prepare my lesson plans at the moment.
“At the very least, I think that teachers should be given roles that are relevant to their interests and expertise; that way, they can focus on being good at a particular area for the benefit of their students.”
Parental pressure
In the NUTP survey mentioned, it was also found that a whopping 83% of respondents citied parents and students as main sources of stress.
According to primary school teacher Tan*, the results are hardly surprising as teachers bear the brunt of blame for producing less-than-stellar students.
“In addition to pressure from the administration to ensure that all students make the grade, parents say we are not pushing their children hard enough academically,” she says.
“I’ve even had complaints from parents that I’m not doling out enough homework!”
Tan, who teaches in a vernacular school, adds that she is conflicted by the requirement to check off boxes instead of educating young minds.
“Ideally, I want to instill the love of learning among my pupils, regardless of their ability.
“In reality, I have to force them to mug for examinations so that they have a string of A’s to show their parents.”
For Wiliam*, the main source of pressure comes from not being able to discipline his students.
He says that parents are too quick to blame teachers, and relates an incident which occurred in his secondary school in Selangor.
“The discipline teacher had caught a student smoking on school grounds, and the student was swiftly caned as a result,” says William.
“The next day, the teen’s father arrived demanding to see the teacher.
“Before my colleague could explain why he had punished the boy, the father proceed to hurl vulgar insults at the teacher, and even took a swing at him! Luckily, he missed.”
While William says that he does not condone corporal punishment, he places priority on maintaining school order.
“Some students just do not respond to reasoning, no matter how hard you try.
“I think what makes them bold is knowing that they’ll have their parents defending their actions,” he says.
Secondary school teacher Jamilah* agrees, saying that the teachers in her school avoid reprimanding students for the fear of parents.
“I once scolded a student for handing in her homework late, and for not putting enough effort into it.
“My reward for doing so was to get screamed at by the student’s mother.
“Now, I don’t bother whether students hand in their work or not — it just means that there are less books for me to mark,” says Jamilah.
Workplace politics
Much like at any other workplace, office politics are rampant in schools as well.
But a few teachers cast serious accusations regarding the practice of favouritism in their schools.
One teacher claims that she receives a heavier workload than most of her colleagues.
“I teach both English and Moral Studies, and I am a class teacher as well as an advisor for a student club. Plus, I’m always given the task of organising one school event after another.
“It’s frustrating because I feel the workload is not being distributed evenly amongst the staff — those who are very ‘friendly’ with the headmistress seem to get away with doing much less.
She adds darkly, “I can’t help but notice that these teachers are of the same race as the headmistress.”
With almost 20 years of experience, another teacher claims that she has been passed over for promotions due to the colour of her skin.
“I don’t have any problems with my colleagues, but rather the principal,” she says.
“Numerous younger teachers have moved up the ranks with ease, all of them of a certain race.
“The only reason given to me so far was that I did not need a promotion because I’m doing so well in my current position.”
But as senior teacher Hasni* points out, any discussion of race is complicated in this country.
“I think that suspicion and fear are now so ingrained at all levels of our society – sadly, even among the educated,” she says.
“I’ve heard of similar claims in my school, but more often than not, it’s just a case of the teacher in question not being good enough.”
Generation gap
Like many wide-eyed young graduates, Azreen* was eager to put her theoretical knowledge to the test when she started teaching in a boarding school in Johor.
Much to her chagrin, she found that many of her senior colleagues were not interested in updating the status quo.
“What I loved about teaching was the opportunity to try out ideas in engaging students.
“But some of the older teachers were not happy with my approaches in the classroom, although the students were responding really well,” says Azreen.
She adds that she felt pressured to adhere to norms that were at odds with her personal convictions.
“For instance, I insisted on speaking in English to my students, so as to encourage them to use and practise their language skills.
“As a result, I was ridiculed by other teachers who said that I had ‘forgotten’ my roots and I was too ‘Westernised’.”
After a few years of sticking it out, Azreen has since left the profession to join the corporate world.
Meanwhile, Bakar*, an assistant principal nearing retirement, has problems handling the younger generation of teachers.
“What disheartens me the most is the complete lack of passion in the new crop of teachers,” he says.
“They don’t bother taking any initiative or pride in doing their job well.”
Bakar says that having to constantly monitor teachers on basic tasks cuts into the time he needs for his own work.
“I even have to check up on them to do things like preparing a lesson plan before stepping into class, or ensuring that they show up for co-curricular activities that they are in charge of.
“With a few notable exceptions, I have spoon-fed teachers with information and instructions just to get simple things done!” he exclaims.
Lecturer Chong* concedes that Bakar’s views hold water, as his teachers’ training college frequently receives such feedback from school principals.
“It’s the attitude rather than the skills of young teachers that are giving administrators a headache,” says Chong, adding that the regimented environment in college may be a factor in causing apathy among trainees.
Bakar offers a more cynical point of view, saying that the problems plaguing the profession do not make it an attractive option for many.
“The profession is one that demands sacrifice and patience, but a good number of young teachers are only in it for the want of other options,” he says.
“Unfortunately, the reality is that teaching is not exactly the top choice for most talented individuals, especially when they can get better paying jobs elsewhere.”
*Names have been changed.
