Teacher's Day surprise falls flat, union says benefits only select few

The National Union of Teaching Profession, representing some 140,000 teachers in the country, has expressed disappointment with the government’s "Teacher’s Day surprise", describing it as benefiting only a handful of teachers and therefore not appreciative of teachers' dedication.

NUTP secretary general Lok Yim Pheng said the ‘gift’ announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak earlier this week on the five promotion methods for teachers effective January 1 next year, would be of no benefit to ordinary teachers.

"The irony was that instead of causing cheer, the announcement had caused much concern and unhappiness in the teaching fraternity because the bulk of them have been left out," Bernama quoted her as saying.

Earlier, announcing measures to uplift the status of the teaching profession, Najib introduced five new promotion schemes for teachers which included promotions to fill vacancies, promotion given Special to a holder of a post, time-based promotion, promotion to performing principals or headmasters and likewise, promotion to teachers.

Najib said the government had agreed that 1,228 secondary school principals would be upgraded to Grade DG52 from the current DG48 and a total of 6.585 senior assistant teachers (GPK) would be upgraded from DG44 to DG48.

The promotions however do not affect primary school teachers.

Lok said she had received many "frustrations and concern" from teachers who were left out in the scheme.

Lok pointed out that primary school headmasters with low enrolment remained at DGA32 while senior assistants at cluster primary schools are upgraded to DGA34 from DGA32.

“This means that headmasters in primary schools with low enrolment will have a lower salary scheme than the senior assistants in cluster schools,” she added.

NUTP said it would meet Najib to present its grievances and woes of the ordinary classroom teachers.

"Without dedicated teachers, headmasters and principals cannot run the schools," said Lok.

- Harakahdaily