Ghani: Local teachers can deal with local problems better

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PANELLISTS: Supaat (centre), Abdillah (second left) and other panellists at the event.

KUCHING: The Education Ministry has been urged to look at the possibility of allocating more teachers to serve in areas of their origin, starting from the intake of trainees from the local teachers training college.

Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina, who made this point during the question and answer (Q&A) session at the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 open day at the old state legislative assembly complex yesterday, added that the ratio in favour of their presence played an important role to a school’s success.

“There should be 70 per cent of local teachers posted to schools near the place where they come from and as an national integration effort, the rest should be teachers from other places,” said Ghani.

He said the measure could help prevent the problem of frequent transfer of teachers, which, in the end, could affect the performance of the school.

“We felt that local teachers were more aware of the needs of the schools and students in an environment they were familiar with,” he pointed out.

He also expressed the need for principals or headmasters to be of the same ethnic group as the students.

“Looking at the positive side, a Malay principal should be posted to a school with the majority of Malay students, an Iban principal should be posted to schools where the majority of the students were from the Iban ethnic group and so on,” he said.

He also highlighted the need for the education system to be reviewed and not to be created for the political benefits of certain parties.

“We should prioritise the education system without the prejudice of involving political agenda and needs. It will also trouble those involved in the system whenever there is a change in a ministerial post,” he said.

Former state education director Datu Adi Badiozaman Tuah said the new Malaysian Education Blueprint should be lauded but raised the issue whether officers implementing the plan had the professional courage to continue
to achieve the objectives.

“At the same time, we should not forget our previous education master plan and try to correct and improve areas that we see can be improved,” said Adi.

He called for more attention and clear definition on school-based management, which, he said, would be a catalyst towards a high performance school

Five panelists headed by the Education Ministry deputy director general Supaat Tamin and state education director Abdillah Adam presented the Malaysian Education Blueprint to teachers and officers related to education yesterday.

Among the highlights was the presentation of 11 shifts in the education system by Supaat.

The shifts include ‘equal access to quality education of international standard, ensuring every children to be proficient in Bahasa Malaysia and English, develop value-driven Malaysians, transform teaching into the profession of choice, and ensure high performance school leaders in every school’.

They also include the empowerment of state education and district education offices to customise solutions based on needs, to leverage on ICT to scale up quality learning across Malaysia and to transform ministry’s delivery capabilities and capacity.

The shifts also looked at linking partnerships with parents, community and the private sector, maximising the student’s performance for every ringgit spent and lastly to increase the transparency for direct public accountability.