The results for the posts of ‘pensyarah cemerlang’ DG 54 and 52 have been announced at a teacher's training institute.

As the designation indicates, these are very senior posts and one will expect the successful candidates to be able to command the respect of not only his/her own colleagues but also the trainee teachers.

It is easy to discredit criticism being levelled now as stemming from jealousy and"sour grapes".

But as a member of the teaching profession for more than 3 decades I can say in all honesty that I'm writing this to alert the powers-that-be at the Ministry of Education how impactful their decisions will be.

I am relating the experience over a particular well-known ‘pensyarah cemerlang’ or ‘excellent lecturer’ has an unusual teaching strategy, that is to send the trainees to the cafeteria for group discussions.

    

Yes, student-centred learning is indeed praised but there are necessary preparations on the part of the teacher/lecturer to ensure that learning takes place.

In the context of this particular ‘excellent lecturer’ the strategy is used to cover the alloted timetable interaction hours without even been present with the trainees.

Another strategy trainees had disclosed about this lecturer was to send them to the institute’s field, purportedly for instructional strategy on the topic ‘measurement’ but with nothing concrete other than walking about with their measuring devices measuring anything they wished.

In the process another two hours of the timetable were utilised.

Yes, I must admit these two case histories are perhaps the worst of the information I had received. What am I trying to get at?

That a lecturer of the mould as described above has been promoted to the ‘pensyarah cemerlang’ grade gives a bad message to the trainees and the other staff at the institute: you do not need to be diligent and responsible in the discharge of your teaching and learning responsibilities to be promoted to be an ‘excellent lecturer’.

This is one aspect that ails our education system. It wants to reward excellence but when the evaluation system is flawed, a wrong message is sent out.