Budaya Buka Sekolah...

This is the flavour of the day for now... school stories. Anyway, this is the week of buka sekolah all throughout Malaysia.

Budaya buka sekolah... These days we have early registration during the last week of the school hols. And it can take up to 3 days - for pelajar ponteng, pelajar lain and pelajar baru. 3 mornings of the last vestiges of hols wasted!

I don't see the point. All these can be done in one day actually, or even on the first day of school itself. Today is Day 3 and registration is still ongoing. Yet we see it necessary so that lessons can start of Day 1 itself. Lessons would have started just the same for teachers with no class duties... For those with classes to manage, they'll still be juggling their tasks. Kononnya to maximise the use of time....

It's laughable cos we waste so much time on so many other things... long official assemblies that drag beyond the prescribed time. Daily assemblies... we have that every morning. Such a waste of time, moving from the class to the assembly area and not forgetting too that it tends to exceed the prescribed time as well. Then the co-curricular periods. Under the existing system, 1-2 periods weekly are for co-curricular activities. But very often those are wasted time. Also teachers who waste time.... and the countless ceramahs - you name it, motivasi, bacaan yassin, program peningkatan. We seem to feel that all these will make the students learn, kinda like churning out products off the assembly line. Discipline needs to be inculcated - it takes time, effort and hard work. All these feel-good short sessions are just that - makes us feel good that we've done something good! This is the sort of minimal work, maximum impact (as in people see it big).

And bosses.... they seem to spend more time preaching none professional stuff than minding the concerns of the school .....basically all the other things except what they are paid to do - run the school or teach. The inadequate cover their inadequacies with all kinds of talk but of late I notice they usually take on the form of religous ones.

So first week, budaya buka sekolah.... trying to revive my enthusiasm... Incidentally, I was told by one of my bosses not to be so kecewa. I am not kecewa. I am just disillusioned by all the all talk and not walking their own talk thing... What I think many of us would appreciate is some support and encouragement in doing our job - to be able to teach without all these unending paper work or incessant talk about how much they are trying to make our lives easier or how how indebted we should be to them or even how we should have all these meaningless pangkat(s) just because we are DG44 or DG48 or what have you not. I read this somewhere... A good leader must understand that there exist a covenantal relationship with his people which strives to liberate and not shackle them so that they too can catch the fire of their purpose as part of the organization. Where I am... I don't think so that's happening.

And I haven't even started on the recent PMR results yet... of what a sham it seems to be. Quality? It's difficult to tell the good one from the mediocre ones these days. The results mask them all and lump them all in a cesspool of mediocrity. Welcome back to school!!!