In the move to Uphold BM and Strengthen English, teachers can expect many new strategies to be implemented by the Ministry to achieve this goal. And obviously through this news article, it has not taken into consideration the human factor that is required to fulfil this goal.
Strengthening English is not just the Ministry's goal but also the goal of the teachers who are out there in schools to teach the subject. These teachers, however much the Ministry pretends to acknowledge, are faced with arduous tasks of getting this task done especially the fact that English, in reality, is not a second language in Malaysia. Consequently, teachers are faced with students who are not interested to learn the language, no matter how much coaxing is given or what ever resource materials are used.
But back to the issue at hand, the Ministry, before strengthening English, should take precedence in strengthening the teachers moral. Teachers after all are humans who have feelings and are affected and influenced by their surroundings. The Ministry must realize that teachers who have set up root in a particular place would find it difficult to uproot themselves, especially to a place that is two or three hours drive from their current location.
The unhappiness does not only come from the distance but also from the fact that they would have to uproot their whole family like transferring their children to other schools, spouses to a different working place, finding new accommodations, looking for nannies to care for their babies plus the emotional transfer that all these people will have to go through. All these weaken the teachers moral and spirit. So, how then do you expect them to carry on strengthening English!
On one hand, transfer is good because you meet new colleagues and students, hence new challenges. On the other hand, strong teachers can be weakened by transfers that they personally feel are uncalled for. Perhaps the idea of this particular teacher transfer should have been opened to applications.
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