Recently, my wife told me that her school where she taught had two awards for its teaching staff. The first award is to the teacher that has never taken medical leave of absence. The second award is for the teacher that is 'Serbaboleh' or multi-talented. I would like to comment on these two awards.

With regards to the medical leave business, the school administration is clearly warning teachers about 'playing the fool' with medical leave. To be fair there might be a few black sheep in this category.

But as my wife's experience goes, there were many circumstances that required her to take leave but this was refused and she thus had to resort to a medical certificate (MC). For instance, when our child was severely ill, the headmaster would not let her off without an MC to take the child to the hospital.

In another instance, I had to travel on an urgent family matter and wanted my whole family with me but she again was denied leave. My wife also told me about the teacher who had chicken pox and still came to school. Several students contracted the illness but the teacher eventually was the recipient of the 'No MC Award'. Wonderful.

With regards to the second award. I have seen my wife staple hundreds of question papers, build benches, run Parent-Teacher Association meetings and undertake many more duties which have no direct relevance to her teaching portfolio.

I have never seen her invent new ways of teaching due to the burden of all this work. She is now planning to retire at 45 to take care of her ailing mother. But we have been warned that this early retirement may not be entertained as there is a serious shortage of veteran English teachers like her.

So new teachers, be prepared.