National Parent-Teachers Association (PIBGN) Chairman Prof Dr Mohamad Ali Hassan said there were many opportunities for teachers to go on a break.

He was commenting on the recent uproar which ensued following a tweet by one Abdullah Mohd Nawi. The netizen was lamenting that his wife, a teacher, was forced to spend most of her leave grading student papers.

“I don’t think the situation for teachers is so dire that they have no break or leave to spend time with their family.

“There is plenty of leave for teachers. There is no problem,” he told FMT.

Abdullah had publicly complained about how his wife was forced to go back to work during the first week of school holidays.

She was tasked with grading exam papers of around 160 students. Given the fact that she was also in charge of three different subjects, based on Abdullah’s estimation, she would be marking 480 papers.

“My wife took 240 hours to mark all the papers and if she had done it continuously, without food or sleep, it will take her 10 days to complete them. School holidays are only for 14 days.”

Complaining of how he had taken his annual leave to enjoy the break with his wife, Abdullah questioned if there were better ways for teachers to enjoy the break they were entitled to. .

To this, Mohamad said if there was any obstacle in completing such tasks, teachers should meet with the school’s headmaster and discuss the possibility of perhaps not taking up the responsibility of invigilating public examinations in the future.