Let education take care of its own
Dominic Loh, Sin Chew Daily
Last Wednesday, the cabinet instructed second education minister Idris Jusoh and minister in the PM’s department Wee Ka Siong to negotiate the best solution on the transfer of teachers. More than a week now, but we have yet to hear anything positive from the ministers. In another development, deputy education minister Mary Yap reiterated two days ago that the education ministry’s move to transfer teachers-to-be to vocational schools and boarding schools was in compliance with the ministry’s system and is in line with the direction of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025
The Chinese community is concerned whether such a development would mean there is no turning back for the teacher transfer. And if it really is like this, it will be without doubt a big disappointment on the part of the Chinese community because this is absolutely not something these teachers-to-be would have wanted to see.
According to news reports, Yap has sought the particulars and statistics on the Chinese language teachers at secondary schools nationwide. We hope these updated statistics would allow the deputy minister would see the reality that SMKs and SMJKs in the country are seriously in dearth of Chinese language teachers and take immediate remedial action by transferring back 136 UPSI graduates to teach Chinese language in secondary schools.
According to what the education officials have said earlier on, education ministry statistics show that SMKs and SMJKs do not lack Chinese language teachers, which is obviously not realistic. According to the information made available to the National SMJK Development Council, SMJKs in the country alone are in a short supply of 161 Chinese language teachers while unofficial statistics also show that the Chinese language classes in SMKs also lack about a hundred language teachers.
But then why such a wide disparity between the ministry’s statistics and what we have in hand? From what we understand, more than 1,000 “original Chinese language teachers” across the country have been transferred to teach other subjects although they are still labeled “Chinese language teachers” in the education ministry’s database.
With the latest data and statistics now being sought Mary Yap, she has the obligation to reflect the actual situation to the education director or even the minister based on the latest and updated statistics provided. It is imperative that the ministry make amend and review the policy of transferring teachers, sending the teachers back to where they should belong, namely SMKs and SMJKs to teach Chinese language.
It is highly unprofessional to transfer Chinese language teachers from secondary schools to teach in vocational schools or boarding schools, just like sending a trained pilot to drive a bus or taxi, which is neither fair nor right while squandering precious human resources.
The UPSI Chinese language faculty has been established to train future Chinese language teachers. Graduates from here should be sent to secondary schools to teach Chinese language and not other subjects.
Let education take care of its own. This is nothing about politics or racism, but an unwavering education principle associated with the well-being of all Malaysians.
