Friday January 11, 2013

Easing the burden on teachers

By PRIYA KULASAGARAN
educate@thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry has started a project to reduce teachers' administrative workload by placing support staff at schools.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said it involved placing one support staff member in each of the 313 schools in Malacca.

“These Grade N17 support staff member will specifically handle data management, media and the school's resource centre.

“The ministry will revise designation norms as well as placement and redeployment policies for teachers and other ministry staff,” he said in his New Year's address to the Education Ministry staff here yesterday.

The ministry conducted a study last year on the placement of administrative assistants in schools to reduce the clerical workload of teachers.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the ministry had implemented its “1Agenda” programme, which combines various initiatives under the National Key Result Areas (NKRA), the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) and other existing projects, to “improve cooperation between departments and prevent them from working in silos”.

Exchanging pleasantr ies: Muhyiddin and his deputy Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong (behind him) greeting schools’ heads and principals at Putrajaya International Convention Centre.

Muhyiddin said the ministry would carry out four initiatives over the first 100 days of this year, including a parent engagement tool kit in 10,000 schools and a video library of Guru Cemerlang (Excellent Teachers) delivering daily lessons in important subjects such as Science, Mathematics, Bahasa Malaysia and English.

“The ministry will also carry out training on higher order thinking skills for 31,000 Form One, Two and Three Science and Mathematics teachers. We hope that by the end of 2013, 20% of UPSR and PMR examinations are made up of higher order thinking question.”

Muhyiddin added that the ministry had set eight goals to be fulfilled by the end of the year, including a 88% pre-school enrolment rate; the setting-up of 10 International Baccalaureate schools and 18 high performance schools; and that all urban schools have 4G facilities.

These initiatives are part of the “first wave” of improvements proposed by the Preliminary Report: Malaysia Education Blueprint launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last year.

Muhyiddin said the ministry would set up the Education Performance and Delivery Unit to ensure all the initiatives were implemented successfully.

“The unit will also be an entity to channel funding for these initiatives and act as a body that will provide support,” he said.

News

Friday January 11, 2013

Easing the burden on teachers

By PRIYA KULASAGARAN educate@thestar.com.my

By PRIYA KULASAGARAN
educate@thestar.com.my