I am very much attracted to the comments given by Dhaliwal as appeared on NST (July 24, 2007) entitled “What is a teacher to do?”. It’s true that parents nowadays are pampering their children too much, and putting all the responsibilities of educating their children on the teachers’ shoulder. However, I am not blaming the parents for doing so as it is not wrong for them to protect their children (or in most cases, saving their faces). My point of interest is to look at the scenario surrounding the unnecessary hype of “abusive” or “bad” teachers.
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I guess many teachers would agree with me that whenever they face problems dealing with some students with disciplinary problems in class, they would often choose to keep mum or simply express their dissatisfaction to their colleagues in the staff room. This is primarily because even if they take actions, they might not get the support from the school as well as the parents.
Teachers, too get ill-treated by the students, but does anybody care? If reports were made to the ministry, such teacher would be labeled as incapable and unfit to teach, or their reports might be kept somewhere in the dusty shelf. I wonder if those at the top were asked to teach these students, what would they do? It is easier to talk and pointing fingers from top than getting down to the schools and help the teachers. Teachers who face these kinds of students are left with no options but to keep quiet, putting a lot of unnecessary stress on themselves. The school headmaster would of course keep himself or herself busy by attending various functions or events outside the schools, leaving the teachers to face the trouble alone. If the teachers do it right, the headmaster get the praise for being a good school manager. If they do not, the whole school will act as if they do not know anything and it is totally the teachers’ fault. It is really sad to note that such situation is haunting our teachers.
Not only they have to face pressures from the parents and school to make sure their students get excellent scores in examination, but also meeting the harsh demands to discipline them. Perhaps, that is the reason why not many are willing to take up teaching profession lately, particularly teaching in secondary schools. Another important point is, it would not be fair for the parents to blame the teachers whenever something bad happened to their children. Why not listen to what the teacher has to say? There must be a reason why a teacher would take such dramatic action (unless the teacher is mentally ill of course). I respect the braveness of the warden in Sibu who was daring enough to step up and explain the reason for her punishment when her school was more concerned of protecting its reputation and it was sad that she was left to fight the onslaught of the public alone.
Let’s face it, while teachers in other countries like Thailand (southern), Iraq or Pakistan are ready to hold weapons to face the real war, teachers in Malaysia, on the other hand, have to face a different kind of war – the war of saving the faces of parents, schools and ministry. Sadly though, they normally go to war alone.
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