She said that was part of a teacher’s responsibility and they had to manage their time between marking papers and enjoying school holidays.
“How the teachers manage their time is up to them.”
However, she pointed out that teachers should not spend all their school holidays marking exam papers as they are entitled to have a rest.
“Since teachers do not enjoy annual leave like civil servants, except for seven days of special leave and school holidays, the schools must make sure it does not burden the teachers.
“The burden of marking exam papers must be shared. One teacher should not spend all her school leave marking papers.”
Lok said teachers need rest after dealing with school children as “it can be tiring dealing with so many kids”.
She said teachers are also told to come back to school on the first and last week of December.
“If the teachers are overworked during school holidays, it is the responsibility of each school to look into this problem and rectify the situation.”
Malaysian school children enjoy 45 days of school holidays, which does not include weekends, a week-long break during Chinese New Year and Raya, and other national holidays.
Lok said some schools handled the workload well and teachers do not feel the burden.
She was commenting on a tweet by one Abdullah Mohd Nawi. who said his wife, a teacher, had to return to school in the first week of school holidays and had been busy marking exam papers the rest of the time.
He explained that his wife had to mark the exam papers of four classes, of 40 students each, for three subjects, bringing the total to 480 test papers.
He said his wife took a total of 240 hours and added: “If she were to mark non-stop and not sleep, it would take her 10 days. School holidays are 14 days.
“Minus the four-day weekend, she spent the entire school holidays marking exam papers.”
Abdullah said he had taken annual leave with the intention of enjoying a break with his wife and added: “Surely, there has to be a better way for teachers to have an actual break during the so-called school break?”