PM urged to release funds to free teachers from admin work
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also finance minister, has been urged to allow funding for the hiring of administrative assistants which will free teachers from administrative work and allow them to focus on teaching.
PKR's Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar made the call today following the 2012 recommendation by a special committee to hire N17 grade administrative assistants that has yet to be implemented nationwide.
The recommendation was among 28 suggestions put forward by the special committee which was set up by the Education Ministry in 2010 to help find ways to reduce teachers' workload to allow them to concentrate on teaching.
Nurul said that in her question to Education Minister Mahadzir Khalid in Parliament yesterday, she was told that only a pilot project in Malacca and Kedah had been implemented based on the recommendation.
"When asked further, Mahadzir said the programme will only be implemented nationwide if it received the finance ministry's approval," said Nurul Izzah.
However, she said the heavy cuts to education in the 2016 Budget did not bode well for the recommendation to be implemented.
"Therefore, I am worried that teachers will continue to be burdened due to the misplaced priorities of the finance ministry," she said.
Nurul (photo) added that teachers should not be left hanging on the matter.
She cited the 'Malaysia Economic Monitor: High Performing Education Report 2013' which said that Malaysian teachers were not only required to handle teaching and learning activities but were also depended on for co-curricular an
d professional development activities as well as programmes involving parents.
Admin tasks taking up time
"Educators in the country are burdened by up to 57 hours of work a week with teaching and learning activities in classrooms at only 2.4 to 2.9 hours a day which is 40 percent below the average for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries," she said.
She pointed that in contrast, teachers in New Zealand and Indonesia spent five hours a day for teaching and learning activities while in South Korea it was 4.1 hours a day.
"Furthermore, (Malaysian) teachers are also forced to do administrative tasks such as filling students' report cards, taking attendance and keying data into the system.
"These administrative duties take up as much as 30 percent of their time," she noted.
As such, Nurul urged Najib to grant the Education Ministry's request for funding to allow for the hiring of administrative assistants instead of concentrating large amounts of funding for the Prime Minister's Department.
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