Star Q
It has been one and a half years already and there is still nothing concrete about this position, be they with regards to the job specifications or with the appointments, even with the attention given by many quarters with regards to the successes these people are supposed to achieve.
It is a reality that many SISC+'s everywehere are feeling demoralised due to the fact they don't even have letters of appointment for their positions. The ones that they received (in a make-do ceremony of handing over the appointment letters) were riddled with errors which are not worth mentioning here. In addition, those letters have since been recalled and now the SISC+'s are working in their respective District Education Offices without any proper documents which makes me personally, feel like an illegal worker from one of our neighbouring countries.
The uneasy feeling expressed by SISC+'s is also due to the unclear job specifications outlined in the DTP. Well, it may be clear enough to people who want to see them but some people always take advantage of the unclear or grey areas of the job specifications by adding other duties that are not directly related to the SISC+'s.
I guess some people (bosses, in particular) can't stand the fact that SISC+s are doing so little work (according to them) based on the job specifications, for example, coaching. The thing that these people do not realise is that coaching itself entails a lot of responsibilities. Coaching a teacher happens before an actual lesson takes place, during the lesson and after the lesson. All these three different duties themselves take up a considerable amount of the SISC+'s time.
The coaching part of the job does not stop there by any means. In fact it continues even after office hours when the SISC+'s need to analyse the days lesson, decide on interventions, suggest activities and to a certain extent, help to design future lessons, worksheets or resource materials.
SISC+'s also strive to provide their coachees (and other teachers in general) with useful information that they can probably use and apply in their classrooms. For example, SISC+'s will develop slides to be uploaded onto blogs or websites for the benefit of teachers in general. SISC+'s also conduct courses, be they at school level or district level, for teachers to help them improve their teaching. In addition, there are the numerous amount of documentations that need to be done plus filling in on-line reports.
In the midst of doing our work illegally, SISC+'s are susceptible to mishaps that may happen on the road when they drive to schools to coach teachers. Their vehicles are also prone to wear and tear due to the distances that they go through to reach their destinations. The mileage claims offered to them is hardly enough to cover all that.
And to top it all off, there are the countless number of annoying meetings that SISC+'s need to attend; whether the content of these meetings are directly related to them or not, is irrelevant in the eyes of the public, plus the odd pep talks here and there. And, oh yes, the SISC+'s also have to attend courses, workshops, seminars and what-have-you; sometimes at the whims and fancy of the administrators!
It's a tough job being an SISC+. It's no wonder many of us want to leave the job but are unable to do so. Many of us welcome the idea of returning to school and to teach again but without the green light from our bosses (and their bosses!) who have their own personal agenda to fulfil, we may have to continue working illegally.
I suspect the powers that be know that we are working illegally. The only reason why they are not doing anything about it or are taking a very long time to make our services legal, is so that they can milk our services and expertise until they run dry. I am not surprised if one day they decide that they don't need us anymore or that they have achieved what it is they initially set out to achieve, they may just discard us due to this technicality that they may have purposely and so conveniently created.
So, that is SISC+ as I see it!
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