Following the government's broken promises to alleviate the clerical work burden of primary school teachers, a number of them have set up a Facebook page demanding the Education Ministry to implement improvements or to scrap their burden.
Their complaint is on the evaluation-based school system or Sistem Pengurusan Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (SPPBS) implemented in 2011, under which teachers will have to key-in the details and examination results of their pupils.
Their complaint is on the evaluation-based school system or Sistem Pengurusan Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (SPPBS) implemented in 2011, under which teachers will have to key-in the details and examination results of their pupils.
There are approximately 400,000 teachers nationwide, and teachers comprise one of the largest group of civil servants.
However, the problems faced by the teachers in primary schools is that poor Internet servers resulted in them having to spend hours to key-in the data.
And to make matters worse, they have to stay up until 3am or 4am, when the servers functioned better, to perform this task.
The matter was made much worse, they complained, with the Education Ministry's evaluation based on schools or Penilaian Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS) system, under which lesser emphasis is put on exams and the academic progress of the pupils are based on the work given to them.
Too much time wasted on keying-in data
This has resulted in teachers having spend at least once a month to key-in the progress reports of their pupils. Being plagued with the poor servers at the Education Ministry and coupled with chasing deadlines, the teachers are spending more time to key-in the data, rather than teach, which is their core task.
Not being able to tolerate this predicament and out of concern for the pupils, a group of teachers have come together and set up ananti-SPPBS Facebook page.
Its administrator, Mohd Noor Izzat Mohd Johari, said since theFacebook page was set up on Oct 31, it got more than 27,000 "Likes" - in less than two weeks.
"The government had promised the teachers that it will alleviate their problems, but they have instead been burdened with clerical work. For this reason, we set-up the Facebook page, to pressure the government to improve the system or to disband it altogether next year," Noor Izzat told Malaysiakini.
Target is 200,000 'Likes'
He said they targeted to gather 200,000 likes in order to pressure the Education Ministry to improve on the system.
"We hope to meet Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan later this month to seek a solution to the matter and resolve the problems faced by teachers. We know that tenders were recently issued to improve on the servers, but the problem still persists.
"We question whether taxpayers' money is being properly spent on buying the right servers, which can be easily accessible by the teachers," he said.
Nor Izzat said primary school teachers were already being burdened with more than 60 tasks for next year.
Under the SPPBS system, he said, teachers were spending more time on the computer to key-in the data and this has also resulted in social problems where teachers could not spend enough time with their families.
He commended Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar for bringing the issue up in Parliament last week. Deputy Education Minister Mary Yap's reply was that the matter would be looked into.
"I hope that things will improve next year or else it will create a huge problem for teachers and this will affect the welfare of the pupils. Our duty is to teach, not do clerical work," Noor Izzat said.
Besides trying to get the ministry to abolish the SPPBS system or have it improve on the system, the group behind the Facebookproject also hopes to form another teachers association, to be registered under the Registrar of Societies.
Their Facebook page carries a caricature of a teacher working in the school in the wee hours and his son bringing a mattress and pillow there, to highlight the problems these teachers face.
However, the problems faced by the teachers in primary schools is that poor Internet servers resulted in them having to spend hours to key-in the data.
And to make matters worse, they have to stay up until 3am or 4am, when the servers functioned better, to perform this task.
The matter was made much worse, they complained, with the Education Ministry's evaluation based on schools or Penilaian Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS) system, under which lesser emphasis is put on exams and the academic progress of the pupils are based on the work given to them.
Too much time wasted on keying-in data
This has resulted in teachers having spend at least once a month to key-in the progress reports of their pupils. Being plagued with the poor servers at the Education Ministry and coupled with chasing deadlines, the teachers are spending more time to key-in the data, rather than teach, which is their core task.
Not being able to tolerate this predicament and out of concern for the pupils, a group of teachers have come together and set up ananti-SPPBS Facebook page.
Its administrator, Mohd Noor Izzat Mohd Johari, said since theFacebook page was set up on Oct 31, it got more than 27,000 "Likes" - in less than two weeks.
"The government had promised the teachers that it will alleviate their problems, but they have instead been burdened with clerical work. For this reason, we set-up the Facebook page, to pressure the government to improve the system or to disband it altogether next year," Noor Izzat told Malaysiakini.
Target is 200,000 'Likes'
He said they targeted to gather 200,000 likes in order to pressure the Education Ministry to improve on the system.
"We hope to meet Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan later this month to seek a solution to the matter and resolve the problems faced by teachers. We know that tenders were recently issued to improve on the servers, but the problem still persists.
"We question whether taxpayers' money is being properly spent on buying the right servers, which can be easily accessible by the teachers," he said.
Nor Izzat said primary school teachers were already being burdened with more than 60 tasks for next year.
Under the SPPBS system, he said, teachers were spending more time on the computer to key-in the data and this has also resulted in social problems where teachers could not spend enough time with their families.
He commended Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar for bringing the issue up in Parliament last week. Deputy Education Minister Mary Yap's reply was that the matter would be looked into."I hope that things will improve next year or else it will create a huge problem for teachers and this will affect the welfare of the pupils. Our duty is to teach, not do clerical work," Noor Izzat said.
Besides trying to get the ministry to abolish the SPPBS system or have it improve on the system, the group behind the Facebookproject also hopes to form another teachers association, to be registered under the Registrar of Societies.
Their Facebook page carries a caricature of a teacher working in the school in the wee hours and his son bringing a mattress and pillow there, to highlight the problems these teachers face.
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