Dr Amin (third left) at the launching of the Ziarah Cakna programme at SK Tebobon, while Mistirine (second left) looks on.
KOTA KINABALU: The teacher home visit programme is making an improvement in Malaysia by visiting not only families with troubled children, but also homes of students who have done well to honour them and to get to know their parents.
Education Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Amin Senin, when launching the national level ‘Ziarah Cakna’ (Home Visit) programme at SK Tebobon yesterday, said the programme was previously known as Sekolah Penyayang or Caring School.
“When I was still teaching, the Sekolah Penyayang or Caring School programme focused only on troubled children, especially those with learning difficulties, so that the teachers will understand their background in order to help them overcome the problem.
“But with the Ziarah Cakna programme, we attempt to reduce the stigma, because when teachers are visiting homes it does not mean the students are having problems at schools. However, there are no key performance indicators (KPIs) for the schools because we are giving full responsibility to the schools to choose and visit as many houses as they wanted,” he said, adding that from the previous programme it showed that the percentage of school attendance had gone up.
Although schools in Malaysia are currently in a good position of 98 percent attendance, Dr Amin said the ministry is not forgetting on the remaining one percent.
“Our attendance record is high, but we are always going for that extra mile. With the Ziarah Cakna programme, we are hoping to achieve more,” he said.
Earlier at the event, he read the nationwide message on behalf of Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.
In the message, Maszlee said he hoped the Ziarah Cakna programme would help to restore the image of teachers as ‘heroes’ among students, parents and the local community.
He pointed out that the programme is aimed at expanding the caring school concept and strengthening relationship between the school and parents.
Also present at the launching ceremony was State Education Department director Mistirine Radin.