THE education ministry’s special one-off initiative to recruit over 18,000 teachers to address the shortage of educators in four states is a good move on the Government’s part.
However, every care should be taken to ensure that only the best is selected as the teaching profession is undergoing challenging times due to the pandemic, and need capable people who can shoulder the burden.
Think about it: if the Government is selecting just about anyone who wants a job, they may not be able to handle the responsibilities well, and would no doubt become an additional burden to the education system.
If anything, the post-COVID-19 era requires a new generation of energetic and enthusiastic teachers who are very much unlike their predecessors, particularly in their tech-savviness to be able to cope with the shift from classrooms to virtual learning.
But this is not all. Subject passion is also as important to ensure that teachers do a good job. While it is quite common for teachers to not be assigned to teach the subjects for which they were trained, wouldn’t you rather learn from someone with real passion for the subject that they are teaching instead of someone who just recites facts from a textbook?
And speaking of subjects, Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin also revealed that among subjects that do not have sufficient teachers in primary schools are English, Sejarah (History), Special Education, Religious Education, while in secondary schools the subjects include Bahasa Melayu, English and Islamic Education.
Having said that, the mass recruitment exercise must therefore only take into account the shortage of teachers for the aforementioned subjects rather than hiring simply for the sake of increasing manpower and filling up vacancies.
A high standard of vetting and training new teachers must also be adhered to at all times. In addition, only those with aptitude as well as passion for teaching – and not because they are the best academically qualified – should be recruited into the profession. After all, good academic results do not guarantee that they are the best people for the job.
And it is important to pick the right people for the job, as good teachers are crucial to a student’s education.
Outside the home, teachers are responsible for imparting the right knowledge, in addition to good values, characters, and discipline on impressionable young minds.
Therefore, the ministry of education must prioritise quality over quantity – it’s the only way that our children can have a decent future, because the best asset a nation can give to its citizens is good education. – July 4, 2021
