The education ministry released a 380-page Malaysian School Governance (MySG) for secondary schools last week saying that this was to clear current misconceptions and ambiguity of roles, adding that this had contributed to 37% of them being frustrated with their profession.
“It is one of the solutions whereby everyone has a clear idea of the duties of a teacher. Administrators, politicians, the public, parents and students all know the boundaries of a teacher’s work under MySG.
“Teachers in Malaysia are the best but they also have personal lives just like everyone else. So, to be able to provide the best for their students, we welcome these guidelines,” NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan told FMT.
He said now that the grey areas fall under the purview of “voluntarism,” this meant that teachers going the extra mile should not have their contributions taken for granted.
“The workload of teachers caused by increasing administrative duties over the last decade or so has been a bane to the profession.”
“For example, tuition or extra classes conducted by teachers during off-school hours is not part of their work and this should be appreciated,” he said, adding that the MySG can now be used as a reference when disputes crop up between the administrators and teachers.
Asked how this issue involves politicians, Tan said they too tend to have the idea that teachers work 24 hours and seven days a week, using Saturdays and Sundays for their constituency programmes such as Parent-Teacher Association meetings, tuition and handing out aids.
“So, the teachers are involved directly or indirectly and the total sum of all these activities contribute to the overload that the teachers undergo. At least this guide now clears many things,” he said.
According to the MySG, teachers can only be recalled on two Saturdays a month for extra duties while during the term holidays, principals can ask them to come back for half of the total number of days involved.
In the summary to the guideline, the ministry explained the existing documented roles issued in 2016 have found that there was much ambiguity involving duties of administrators and teachers and had caused much dissatisfaction in the teaching profession.
“Besides this, MySG will also standardise the management of schools in terms of teaching and all other activities that must be carried out in schools,” it said, adding that there was no uniformity even among schools in the same district now.