Basketball and Hari Raya... and what the Minister of Education Says

This message was published in the papers recently. Apparently after some laments (these days teachers are but mere stooges and kuli who must obey the principals) the Minister of Education released some press statements that school breaks should be kept as school breaks. But it is often hard not to have any activities during the break at school... 

This mid year break also coincides with the Hari Raya Puasa. So, one can imagine how many people are looking forward to it. For the Muslim teachers, it’s a break from the grind at school. For the students, it’s holidays. I think many kids find holidays boring, unless their parents take them on a trip. But, the economy is not doing well. Many families are making do with less expensive or no mid year holidays. 

Then the message came above as school heads continue to ‘force’ teachers to hold Program Peningkatan. Actually the Program Peningkatan is extra class. But because extra classes cannot be forced upon the teachers, school heads have cleverly rebranded extra classes as Program Peningkatan. And teachers are pressured to give extra classes. It has come to the point where some teachers have cannot go for their holidays, which of course these heads will point to the regulations that they have a right to call the teachers back for a certain number of days during the break. So, it becomes a norm to see kids in full uniform, at 1.00 noon during school breaks. 

Which of course highlights this basketball tournament. Organised by the Conforming Chinese Schools, they decided to have it during this break too because apparently (again) there is no other suitable date. The point is, the organisers figured that since this involves only the Chinese schools, therefore it is okay to have it during the fasting month, even though it is held so near to the Hari Raya... which is still fine, except that the Muslim teachers who are getting ready for their Hari Raya had to go on duty too. It is a Conforming Chineses Schools competition but Malays teachers had to be involved too, with Raya just a few days away, because the Principal of the organizing school said so. This is where, it crosses into being inconsiderate. 

So apparently, now the Ministry advises schools to cancel activities during the break so that everyone can get a break. Question now... why allow an event such as this to be carried out under its auspices, so near the Hari Raya.

4000 MINUTES... TERBUANG

What is 4000 minutes to a teacher? Been thinking about it for the past few months.

Schools are supposed to inculcate a love for reading in their students. So they craft all sorts of programmes to instil that love for reading. From NILAM to Reading Corner to Morning Reading Session, they hope to get students to want to read. After all, we know those kids won't be doing much lifelong learning or self-directed learning if they don't like reading.

NIILAM has been going on for years. Schools try to cajole, coerce, force and even threaten kids to get NILAM going, though I think NILAM has gone into cold-storage for the time being. However, I think NILAM has not succeeded in most schools simply because there wasn't much concerted effort put into it. Teachers have too many other things on their hands.

Reading Corner, on the other hand, collects dust after the initial brouhaha dies. It sits in the corners of classrooms, school compound, collecting dust... and eventually cobwebs, the reading materials aged by the unforgiving weather.

Enter Morning Reading Programme. In my school they force everyone to gather at the assembly area. Kids can't go to the classroom. So they are forced to sit there till reading starts at 7.20 a.m. If you walk into a school for the first time and see this programme, you'd be forgiven for being impressed. I mean, how not to. That is until you actually see it in action for a couple of weeks, when you, as a teacher are forced to sit there with the kids. After a few weeks, you will begin to notice that kids actually don't read. They just sit and stare at whatever printed stuff they are holding, under the watchful eyes of the prefects and discipline teachers...

As a teacher, I find it a chore after a few weeks. I mean, before I even get to sit down and work on my lesson, it's time to go down. And I am one who often arrives at school before 7.00 a.m. It is frustrating. These days, I make it a point to sit at the coffee shop before I go to school since the canteen food is rather unpalatable. Why torture myself some more?

When asked why the teachers have to sit there, I was told we need to read with the students, be a reading role model. Lol! After a couple of months, I find myself resenting having to sit there. I find myself telling myself, why even bother to prepare the lessons when the school doesn't see the need for teachers to settle down or prepare their lessons. Lol! Lesson prep is not important. Sitting there and wasting time is... for a show.

And, I asked a few classes what they thought of the Morning Reading Programme. One student even said she felt like an idiot sitting there. Even the younger ones said they do not like sitting there. Who can blame them. In the beginning I thought it was a good idea. But after a few months, I can see that I was wrong to think so. A school is also a place where kids play. These kids' lives are regimented from the time they step into school. So how fun is it to sit there? If I were one of the kids, I'd hate it. Lol!

And it got me thinking about the time it forces the teachers to waste. 10 minutes of sitting there waiting for the kids to finish reading. I am already in no mood to read because my mind will be on the lessons for the day. I get cheesed off because I would probably want to work on my computer or print some worksheets for my students. My printer is up there printing and I'd be thinking, did I leave enough paper in it? Would the paper jam ... that's a real worry cos I used recycled papers whenever possible. Life is a constant hurry, a harried rush down and then up again... so much energy wasted. 20 minutes a day.

A schooling year is an average of 200 days. The school wastes 4000 minutes for me without me having to do it myself. But I am not the only teacher. If there are 60 teachers, that is a whopping 240,000 minutes! And 20 minutes is an understatement. Very often it runs to 30 minutes, when there is a spot-check for hair length (that is another topic to ramble on), for example. So much time wasted. So much goodwill burnt. So much forcing down the throat the need to read... so I guess the students must have a very high level literacy ability. But sadly, it is not so.

So yeah.. READING IS HOW WE INSTALL 'SOFTWARES' INTO OUR HEADS.. but when done for show, those heads in the assembly area will still be empty even after 200 days of 10 minutes-a-morning enforced reading.

Want to see how to kill the love for reading??? I think one can safely make an assumption that such a Morning Reading Session will kill it... many, many times over. Want to really get kids to love reading.. inspire the teachers to do so. We'd achieved more this way.

Hari Guru Hijacked

So, what actually is Hari Guru or Teachers' Day for? Is it a day for students to show appreciation for their teachers or what?

I feel Teachers' Day has been hijacked. Hijacked because it is no longer a day for students to appreciate their teachers.  It is more a day of show, and more show.. a lot of physical activities with expected superficial responses.... perhaps that's also a reflection of what we have all become.

The fanfare may all be there. Teachers seemingly being feted yet there seems to be an emptiness of sorts. This year, it is no different.

A special assembly. Class parties banned. Students reminded to attend school under guarded breath. You wonder why... The usual assembly, followed by the usual oath taking and the teacher song by teachers. I find it strange that students scream (or yelled) at any given opportunity during the 'show'. I don't think so our singing was that awesome. But the screaming goes to show the seeping of a concert going culture. Perhaps these kids are just so bored that they become like that at the slightest opportunity, an opportunity to let it all go, to assert themselves. To scream to claim the space or attention.

This year, though in another school, the celebration to me was just as staid as before. It would be nice if kids were allowed to have their class parties. Somehow it is always nicer to be able to go class to class at your own pace. You get to do real mingling with your students in a more relaxed environment. I always believe that working together for a common cause teaches us to be better people. When we remove the class parties, we remove so much of those unseen lessons. For me the joke becomes this... teachers feting themselves on Teachers' Day. I mean, what sense is there for teachers to organise a day to appreciate them. Are we focusing on self appreciation? It is rather comical.

The best things each year for me are those well thought out little gifts that kids made themselves for me. Homemade cookies, little cards with heartwarming messages and things that they thought out. I think they are the most priceless appreciation a teacher can have, I feel. Instead they congregated everyone in the hall... an institution institutionalising her own because it is way easier to exert control... and put on a show that something is being done... hijacked for convenience.

So, we have this stage show. Teachers sitting down there. Students screaming and yelling as if they were in a concert. So much fanfare, yet one can be forgiven to feel the sterility of it.

I spent a good part of the day fixing a fan with a colleague in the classroom that I am using. Figured might as well used the time to get the fan fixed ourselves so that the students will be more comfortable. The weather has been very unforgiving. Pleas for more fans have fallen on deaf ears because I was told all classroom in Malaysia are hot and stuffy. I can never understand why a school can raise hundreds of thousands of ringgit or embark on an endeavour to build a hall or some other buildings but not embark of projects to make classrooms more comfortable. How can they expect kids to study and even stay focussed if the classrooms are like mini ovens? Is it because things fixed in the classroom cannot be seen cos they are not imposing? We focus on the big things but ignore the small things...

In between fixing and trying to get my exam papers ready, we were 'invited' to go watch the concert. For me who just cannot stand loud noises, watching a concert is a torture to the ears and the mind. My own kids asked me to join them for the Ed Sheeran concert in KL recently... it definitely would have been an experience with more wow than the one this morning but I told them to go have a good time, minus me. Cos I don't like crowds and noise. I even gladly sponsored the tickets for them.

Teachers' Day... it would be nice just to let the teachers have their day. Instead, these days, many schools force teachers to watch, be part of a show that is put up yet minus all the personal touches... Everything planned.. everything organised... but the heart and soul left out. And in the end you are supposed to partake of it and pretend that it is the best thing that could have been done.

This year... despite in a new place... there were 2 cards... 2 different groups of students. One had this phrase... 'never a dull moment in your class'. They mean more than any of those other organised stuff... We no longer teach kids to take the trouble to appreciate those around them. We take things into our hands because we feel we know better. We don't... that is the sad thing. Our education system is run by these people who feel that they know best.....

Oh ya... every year they have this cake cutting ceremony... the irony of it.. Teachers' Day... yet those who stood in front, taking all the photos, doing all the cutting... the admin and the invited guests... all the while.. the teachers standing behind... Teachers' Day Hijacked. Lol!

The essence and the spirit of Teachers' Day are gone, hijacked.. I wonder by who?

One more thing.. they tried to have a special celebration for teachers who had their birthdays from Jan to June. Thing is when you do something like this, make sure you comb through your teachers list. Lol! They left me out... not that I mind cos I would not have budged from my seat for that sort of thing but it goes to show that it might be better just to opt that out...

Anyway, teaching is not so important these days... holding extra classes, winning competitions... those seem far more important than the mundane, routine work of building character... It is easy to see why. One gives instant recognition while the other ... well you might not even feel the fruits. Yet, without the latter, our country would surely face a further decline too...

Ramblings about Hari Guru... hijacked.