Wednesday September 12, 2012

Have system to check abuse on assessment, urge teachers

PETALING JAYA: Teachers who welcomed the move to be assessed by their peers cautioned that there should be a system put in place to prevent abuse.

SM Teknik Ipoh teacher Arjan Singh Bulvant Singh said school principals should not be given full power to assess their teachers to prevent accusations of favouritism and victimisation.

“Under-performing teachers should be sent for retraining and if this does not work, then they should leave the profession,” he said in response to the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, which proposed to transform teaching into the profession of choice.

Among others, it suggested that teachers be assessed annually by their principals, with input provided by their peers and parents.

Loh Ken Ming, a teacher from SMK Pulau Ketam in Selangor, said teachers needed peers and parents to give effective feedback and input, which was imperative to improve the quality and competitiveness of teachers.

Cyril Dason from SMK Matang Jaya in Sarawak said teacher assessment should be monitored for abuse and favouritism.

However, a teacher from SMK Seri Ampangan, Negri Sembilan, Nasmizana Mohd Nawi said students and peers should monitor teachers' performance instead of principals or parents.

“Principals are rarely in schools because they are often out for meetings and courses, while parents may not understand the job scope of teachers and they may have different expectations,” she added.

She said students were the best gauge because they knew their teachers well.

The teachers also supported the proposal to reduce their administrative work, with Dason saying that it would be the best Teachers Day present.

He believed that teachers' workload must focus more on teaching and learning and not multiple desk jobs, adding that clerks should be appointed to assist teachers.

“They should not be administrative clerks handling other stuff,” he added.

“Teachers are burdened with a lot of paperwork, like keying in marks, collecting fees, creating student registries, book-keeping, letter typing, filling databases on marks and students' achievements as well as making proposals and reports for projects.”

However, Arjan said there were times when staff members refused to help teachers to do administrative work because it was deemed not within their job scope.

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