Ministry to halt competitions, celebrations that burden teachers

The Education Ministry will discontinue any form of competition, celebration, or ceremony at all levels which do not have a major impact on student learning and only increase the workload of teachers, starting from the 2023/2024 school session.

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek cited examples such as the resource centre cheerfulness competition, the best toilet, the best textbook loan scheme, and so on.

She said the decision was among the seven immediate steps taken by the ministry to address teachers’ welfare, including by alleviating the pressure faced by teachers.

“All these steps will be detailed by the top management of the ministry and will be implemented from the 2023/2024 school session. The ministry is always committed to ensuring the wellbeing of teachers,” she said in a statement today.

Fadhlina said other measures include reducing the frequency Malaysian Education Quality Standard school management reviews involving teachers to only once a year.

“Another measure is to set a more flexible lock-in time for student attendance records for teachers, which is 12 noon for morning sessions and 5pm for afternoon sessions, to avoid congestion in the system,” she said.

In addition, Fadhlina said that the appointment of public examination invigilators by the Examinations Board and the Malaysian Examinations Council is open to those other than serving teachers, such as government retirees, students from the Institute of Teacher Education, or higher learning institutions.

However, they still need to meet the set criteria, said Fadhlina.

The ministry will also limit the organisation of the annual Teacher's Day celebration to the national and school levels, in addition to setting a summary of the daily lesson plan at the ministry level, to ensure that it meets the requirements of the ministry’s Circular No 3/1999, which includes elements of objectives, teaching, and reflection.

She added that the seventh measure is to strengthen the autonomy of teachers in the planning and implementation of teaching and learning, as well as classroom-based assessment, by using the Standard Curriculum and Assessment Document as a reference.

- Bernama