BANGI, July 13: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says teachers who are negligent, indisciplined and perform poorly should be excluded from being promoted.
He said even though the government accepted the principle of promotion on based on time, it would revoke the privilege for teachers who were negligent and had poor discipline.
“If the discipline (of teachers) is weak, if they don’t go to school many times in a year, I want to cancel it (time-based). So we have to be careful, but I believe 90 per cent of them have no problem,” he said when speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP), here today.
Also present were Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, Director-General of Public Service (KPPA) Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) president Aminuddin Awang.
-Anwar said when he was the Minister of Education previously, teachers were blamed because children took drugs, did not study well and were not smart but they accepted it because it was part of their responsibility.
He said a teacher’s job is to educate people so that there is an element of humanity in each of them, as such each student must have love and affection for their teacher.
“I am grateful to Sekolah Cheruk Tok Kun, Bukit Mertajam Boys School, Malay College Kuala Kangsar and Universiti Malaya (UM). I have never forgotten the contribution of teachers (there) because without them other than my parents it would not be possible for (me) to gain a foothold in my career, if not instilled with that spirit,” he said.
As such, Anwar said the welfare of teachers should be protected while at the same time changes should be made.
Malaysia, he said, has the ability and capacity to raise its dignity, to be a good model economically, politically, socially and educationally “because the basic strength is there”.
If you want to improve, you can’t do it with a sluggish culture like (you have) now, you have to be firm,” he stressed..
Anwar urged his detractors not to dispute his commitment on Malay as the official language and the national education policy.
However, he said there was no obstacle towards the development of Chinese, Tamil, Arabic or other languages and space should be given to them.
In order to boost the country’s economy, Anwar said there was also a need to place special emphasis on the mastery of the English language towards digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI).
“My instructions to the Ministry of Education is not to delay as there is a need for an immediate framework for the level of English proficiency (to rise) so that the country can compete.
“At the same time, let’s not belittle the Malay language, mastery and quality which should be better now because of the capability of our children,” he said.
On the Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA), the prime minister said the scheme would be one of the best ever announced by the government and hoped it would improve the services of civil servants and stop bad practices.
Anwar said that although the plan received criticisms from various quarters, it did not interfere with the government’s commitment to implement it as civil servants had not received a salary revision for 12 years.
Anwar said two NUTP proposals would be brought up for discussion involving assistant teachers in primary schools at grade DG48 to be allowed to hold positions as senior assistants and head teachers who have been promoted to grade DG52 on a time-based basis being allowed to hold that position until grade DG54 .
— BERNAMA