Many of us take the profession of educators and the very importance of quality education for granted. Nations are built upon the shoulders of teachers. We can ask any successful person in the world to deny it and none of them ever will. Education is one form or another an integral part of their success.

I will never forget what my SPM History teacher told my class on her first day. She said, “I will teach you how I want others to teach my children.” Her voice was a bit shrill, especially when she yelled out our names if we were to as much as yawn in her class. But Cikgu Martini did not lie.

At school, she was a mother to all of us who were interested in her teachings. Perhaps even a tigress of a mother. She taught us well but most importantly, she showed us that she cared. And that was what made us care about the subject.

The effort to care and nurture works both ways. We have to learn to appreciate what limited time teachers have to care, nurture and teach the young. They are not our parents and parents should not expect them to be their substitute when the nurturing of character of the child is in question.

There is a correlation to how the child will grow up, the aptitude and attitude he or she will possess. Parent-teacher networking is an integral part of this process. Teachers require feedback to improve but they do not deserve the bashing some parents have put them through during parent teacher meetings. There must be a better way to support our teachers without us shamefully taking away their dignity.

Many expect teachers to be everything a parent can’t or won’t be responsible for. We regard them to take over the role of parenting, to be superhumans. Teachers are educators.

They are subject matter experts. Their role is to enable whom they teach to express themselves in the correct and factual manner. That would be the primary task but over time, their roles have expanded to no end. There was the normal workload in class and then there was the mountain of other things to be done outside of it, especially administration and documentation work.

But I am glad to find that that this part of their tasks is now being reviewed through the government Transformation Programme (GTP) as the government looks to make the profession more effective with the view to assure and ensure quality education.

Under the GTP for example, the Education Ministry is rolling out several fundamental initiatives. One of it is to implement a new comprehensive continuous professional development programme for teachers as part of a new Teacher Career Pathway (TCP). It is still in the works but the idea is promising.

Even organisations such as Teach for Malaysia has also done a lot in re-energising the teaching profession by reminding us all how noble and important teaching is. However, to truly re-energise teachers, we must also look into the system in which a teacher works in.

TCP initiative is a good start

As part of the overall National Education Blueprint for Malaysia, the Education NKRA efforts is indeed revamping the fundamental system to create greater career advancement opportunities for performing teachers through the TCP. Before this, it was mostly us students who can recognise and appreciate our teachers, now the system can recognise it, too. This TCP initiative is a good start in appreciating all the efforts good teachers are making in moulding our future leaders.

The government and NGOs are doing their part, so what about the general public or parents who continues to send their children to school to be educated? How do we support the effort of our teachers?

Recalling some of my teachers’ desires, all they ever expect from parents are some degree of time, effort and care spent on their children’s academic and extracurricular endeavours. Simple things like attending the report-card days, the sports days, the award days. Surely, we can at least do that?

We also rarely recognise the achievements that our teachers contribute in achieving but are quick to judge a mistake. Recently, the EF English Proficiency Index ranked Malaysia 11th, ahead of Singapore, in a survey of 60 countries. We probably would pat ourselves on the back for it but would we remember to thank our teachers?

Truth be told, my teachers changed my life. God had blessed me through them to get admirable results for my national examinations. For them to bear witness on their students succeeding is all that a teacher desires. And it is the same thing that most parents want. But teachers cannot do it alone.

It has been said a teacher is a mother at school. A mother is a teacher at home. The two are inseparable and need to work cohesively.

NUR AMALINA NUR ZAKRI is studying at the University of Warwick in the UK under a scholarship from Petronas. She credits her teachers for giving her the support to pursue her dreams. She is home for the summer and is reviewing the progress made by the GTP.