Thursday, January 28, 2010

Carrot and Stick...

The gahmen is mulling over the implementation of this carrot and stick thingy... nothing new, except that it hasn't quite worked in the public sector..... part of the reason, uninspiring bosses... lack of ethics among others.

Carrot and stick... from my little world. Let me illustrate this in this little story which I'll just entitle Chronicle of the 3rd & 4th Periods.
Form 4 Wira. 3rd and 4th period of every Monday is set for Sejarah. First week of school... orientation and briefing for the Form Fours. So, no 3rd & 4th periods as the actual classes had not yet started.

By the second week, lessons had begun. Students and teachers did not sense anything amiss as 3rd & 4th periods came and went without the teacher entering. It was after all still the first week of teaching. Maybe there was some confusion still. Maybe the teacher got mixed up....

Third week came... again the same thing. But this time something happened. A small scuffle broke out. Some tables and chairs were flung. Two window panes got broken. Other students sent for SOS.... the discipline teacher came; took the feuding parties to his room. Peace and quiet! But it did not last long. Soon the noise broke into a crescendo again! Students wandered in and out. Another teacher nearby sent the students to call the teacher concern. 4th period came and went! No teacher. Student said the teacher was busy. Convenient!

Fourth week... part of 3rd period was eaten up by some talk. Students were late coming in. But classes soon proceeded. 4th period came, and still the class was teacherless. By now, the students were getting bolder. They wandered in and out of their class as they pleased. A teacher who soon came by and asked the class monitor to call their teacher. 4th period came and went. No teacher! The class had reached the apex of their noise making by then. Thankfully, the bell rang! And they were off for their lab class.
How will the carrot and stick thing work here? What if the said teacher happens to be one of the bosses? Who awards the carrot and stick thing to him? And how do you know such bosses will award the carrot to the right people? How do you know if they will not wield the stick for the right reason? I stirred the carrot in the cauldron with the stick and out came this story....

Anyway, whatever weaknesses and wrongs in the system will be hard to adjust or change.... I've just in the past few weeks watched in fascination at workplace, this huge brouhaha about being forced to pay an exorbitant sum for a farewell. There seemed to be this groundswell about boycotting it one way or the other.... But as expected, as time drew near, mostly meekly dug into their pockets and came out with the money. We're a forgiving lot... LOL!

So, the conclusion of the matter is... there is no need to be a 'good' boss... or a subordinate because all will be forgiven in the end. So crap on.....

3 comments:

Sia Mooi said...

u mean even after the monitor has called for the tchr; he/she still din enter class? muz b one of the bigger bosses then...shld inform PK1 n do relief if he has no intention entering class. wat if the ss jump off the stairs or kill each other? no sense of responsibility. i get so angry wid such nuts that taint d name of our noble profession.

Thomas C B Chua said...

Random Shots, going to class is the MOST BASIC of the teaching profession, leave alone the quality of " P & P." (Some teachers have immunity, esp. the Pengetua's buddies. Those who do him special tasks,duties and errands.)

AJ7 said...

Who do you think these people usually are? Pengetua(s) are supposed to have at least 5 teaching periods but very seldom we see teacher-Pengetua. Else, long time ago they would have replaced Pengetua with professional administrators... but the MOE fought for Pengetua(s) to be from the ranks of teachers, supposedly can better understand the workings of schools... PKs too are supposed to teach, but they usually hide behind the pretenses of work, and they too very often are seen missing from the classes. The favoured ones.... they're still not that bad, I think. If got no other business, they usually still do enter classes, I think.

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