FEB 14 — I was surprised to find at a cultural exchange event held by a Chinese primary school in Johor Baru three days ago that the yee sang for tossing was actually prepared by a group of Malay teachers. They prepared the dish all on their own and it was really surprising and impressive!
They were proud of their work and the atmosphere was pleasant. However, I could not help but wonder how did they feel when they were deployed to teach in a Chinese primary school? Did they pleasantly accept it? Or just followed the order helplessly and unwillingly?
As Chinese primary schools have been facing the problem of teacher scarcity, the Education Ministry can only relocate surplus teachers in national schools or teachers who do not understand Chinese to Chinese primary schools, causing a strong dissatisfaction from the Chinese community. When the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Jiao Zong) is preparing to launch a national protest movement, these teachers are trapped in an embarrassing and stressful situation.
Perhaps, they feel that they are not very welcomed by the schools as the schools are not lacking in teachers teaching Bahasa Malaysia. Instead, their existence might cause a surplus. However, these teachers cannot resist the appointment of the Education Ministry and thus, they can only quietly accept the fact.
Johor State Education Department Chinese language deputy director Lee Gek Ser admitted that nearly half of about 160 new teachers deployed to Chinese primary schools this year cannot understand Chinese. According to the agreed principle of the Education Department, teachers who cannot understand Chinese are not allowed to teach Chinese-related subjects. They can then teach only Bahasa Malaysia for Standard Three to Standard Six. In this case, some school principals are having a problem in class arrangement. They have no choice but to arrange teachers who do not understand Chinese to teach arts, sports and even music classes. As a result, students are not happy while teachers are in great stress. They might even teach perfunctorily, affecting the quality of teaching.
On this issue, Chinese education associations are having a very different view with the Education Ministry. As Lee said: “Chinese primary schools are asking for pineapples, but the Education Ministry is giving them ‘rojak’ with only a few pineapples in it.” In other words, Chinese primary schools have instead received some teachers but it can only help them solve the problem in terms of number, instead of teaching. It has instead brought more problems.
For Chinese education associations, schools would rather employ temporary teachers than see too many teachers who cannot understand Chinese to be sent to Chinese primary schools. It has nothing to do with racial differences at all, but is purely based on the consideration of teaching needs. Is it true Education Ministry officials really do not know that the teacher scarcity in Chinese primary schools should be resolved instead of being delayed? Or are they just refusing to do it? — mysinchew.com
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
