Adrian’s Thoughts

Teaching resources shortage in Malaysia, as we can see in news, is
no longer a ‘news’ to us! The problem has existed since god-knows-when, and
I’ve been wondering why it has never been solved.

After my recent endeavor with my wife (who is a newly appointed teacher under
MOE), I discovered the very root of this problem.

You see, my wife, who graduated from the university in June 2006, who had
already submitted the application for teacher position long prior to her
graduation, was just receiving the confirmation of posting officially starting
from yesterday - dated 29th March 2007. Of course, because of our savyness in
Internet, we managed to find out her posting state, thanks to technology (but
after much hassle to find the correct link which was HIDDEN!) prior to
receiving the Official Posting Letter. When we realized her posting state in
Klang Valley (which is such a huge place with countless education districts),
we tried calling up the relevant state department to enquire for the exact
school assigned, but all we got for the answer was ‘We don’t know, we can’t
check!”

Can you imagine the Letter arrived at our home 2 days before
the Official Briefing Day? You and I know that most of the time, freshy
teachers are usually posted to a foreign state away from their home state, and
worse still, only until the day of Official Briefing, they get to know exactly
which school they are assigned to. How inconvenient as they have to find
themselves the school, the accommodation (not provided by MOE) within the
proximity of the school, and get settled down with many daily chores and
necessities; all have to be done in a compressed mode within 1 – 2 days time.

Hence, the unsolved mystery is rather simple. It is all due
to several reasons as follows:

1. Application
        processing procedures – red tapes, red tapes, and more red tapes.
2. Reluctance
        of Malaysians, especially those who obtain a recognized teaching qualification
        with specialization in Education during their university studies.

I believe I don’t have to speak about the fact #1, as it has
been part of the Malaysians’ daily routines. What I would like to discuss is
fact #2. Why people are reluctant to become teachers, even though nowadays
their remuneration packages have been made attractive, despite rather low pay
(but considerably I think the starting pay for qualified teachers are still
much better than normal graduates who freshly venture themselves into the
corporate world)? Many may say that one won’t have much career prospect by
becoming a teacher. I tend to agree otherwise. First of all, if you are a
government appointed teacher, rest assured you won’t lose your job for the rest
of your life, except if you have either gone dead or insane! Secondly, you have
lots of holidays and your working time is only half-a-day, ample of time to do
your own personal thing. Thirdly, you are allowed to take up part-time (except
a few conditions that you cannot involve in ‘inappropriate’ professions). Lastly,
in fact to my surprise, the salary, allowance, and perks are very much improved
nowadays.

But why, still many people are reluctant to become a
teacher, you may ask? From my observation, taking the example of my wife’s
university peers who 1) graduated from a degree in Educaton 2) applied for the
teaching position with MOE, almost 80% (majority Chinese, and you know only a
handful of Chinese undertaken into such program from public universities),
eventually dropped out from their teaching path (even though they had been
offered a post).

I further study and research to drill down the core as to
why they refuse to take up the offers. Just imagine that, you have graduated
from the university, say in June 2006, and willfully you cross fingers that you’ll
get your posting soon after you leave university. While waiting, are you going
to sit home and relax yourself, with practically no income? For most people,
the answer is no, except of course if you want to be a bum at home. So, do you
think it’s advisable to obtain yourself a job in the corporate world and treat
it as a ‘temp job’ like most of us did when we went working in McDonald’s to
kill out spare time during school holidays in those days? Being a responsible
person, we have many considerations to make and many obligations to take once
you take up a job offering. Therefore, the norm for people like my wife is to become
a Temporary Teacher at public schools with vacancy, or to join a Tuition
Centre, and keep waiting for the official appointment to arrive at your door
steps.

Well, say you choose a Temporary Teacher path. The pay is
made only after 1 month or so, after you complete your Temporary Teacher
contract (typically on signed on monthly or bi-monthly basis). Practically you
ain’t getting a single cent (if you teach 2 months) for at least 3 months! How
to survive as one can’t even meet their daily expenses? Alright, the officials
explain that hiring Temporary Teachers, at the school level, is a case-to-case
basis, hence the school may only claim and reimburse the Temps after their
completion of services. Ah well, that’s still acceptable! Now, I thought the
problem will be ‘temporarily’ after getting the official posting. More
surprises yet to come. An officially appointed Teachers, will only be up in the
routine payroll after 4 – 6 months after their date of self reporting to the
school! Hahaha, wtf? Sorry for my cheap vulgarity, but I just can’t help it. In
order words, are you, MOE, trying to tell the fresh teachers that they only
will get their lump sum payment, say after 8 months of working? Plus the period
of temporary teaching, in order to become a teacher at public schools, one must
be ready to endure a period of DELAYED PAYMENT for at least 12 months.

I’ve spoken to many Principals at public schools, who don’t
wish their names to be quoted herein, my wife’s case is considered ‘lucky’. Hmm,
lucky is a funny word to use but that’s the most suitable one. Many applicants
are still crossing their fingers, after 1 – 2 years of waiting period. 

Sometimes people say Chinese are of ungrateful breed,
despite being a Chinese myself, I tend to agree.

Due to my close affiliation with a local college, I recently have fought for a
quota from them for a governmental financial aids (fully funded) skills-based
training  programs for school leavers aged 16 – 26, who are either not the
studios type or those who don’t have the luxury to continue studying in
tertiary education. Upon completion of these programs, the students will obtain
certification and qualification that are recognized by the government, as well
as industries, in general. My intention, initially, was to bridge these
programs to Chinese communities, who otherwise would have limited access to.
However, after much efforts of talking to many ‘counselors’  of
Chinese  Schools and arranging for a media announcement in a well
circulated local Chinese daily, it was simply a waste of time.  It possibly boiled down to few main reasons, I
believe:

1. Those ‘counselors’
        at school were too ‘lazy’ to contact their school leavers to tell them
        about these programs.
2. Narrow
        minded parents just couldn’t be bothered, even if they have read the news
        announcement (came out in the news twice!) Probably they think, as the
        Cantonese’ saying goes “No such big frog hopping on the street!”
3. I wasn’t
        doing a good job in sharing this.

I know perfectly the third reason above is of the least
relevance, as I had requested the college to send their staff to conduct a
series of programs previews at the schools (participation of Chinese schools was
just disappointing!)

Well, then I tested bringing these programs to the
Kebangsaan Schools (I figured there might still be a large pool of Chinese
students), the results were in the reverse! We had greater participation from
there, and I can assure you that 95% of the quota offered was filled up by,
again, you-know-who.

I am just wondering why don’t they go for these programs
which bring only benefits? Unlike the privileged Bumiputras, we Chinese really
don’t have much choice, in contract, after leaving secondary schools. If we ain’t
smart enough and ain’t have enough $$$, we are left with only one choice – that
is to venture into the ‘Social University’. The country
is giving limited quotas for non-Bumiputra races in vocational schools,
matriculation programs, government funded universities, and if we can’t excel
in secondary schools and if our parents can’t afford private tuition fees, we
are pretty much doomed to start working at relatively young age.

 
Here on one hand, we Chinese like to complain that the government isn’t doing
much help to us in comparison to the privileged Bumiputras; while on the other
hand,  when offers are laid on the table, we just simply don’t appreciate
it!

I am lazy, I admit, especially when it comes to not getting paid for writing. Albeit my keen interest in reading blogs posted by my friends, I’m just merely lazy (or rather not having a clue at all on what to write) to start my own.

Oh well, I guess I am better off writing nonsense in business plan, where at least I have better ideas on the content layout and bluff my way all through it.

Recently I’ve been extremely busy engrossing myself with loads of works and traveling around (on business trips, of course), and been ignoring my family and friends for quite awhile – which, to my wife it may appear to be lame excuses for not accompanying her. So, I decided to give myself a break last evening and spent some time with my wife, watching movie – the popular 300. Ah yea, you may say that watching movie ain’t a great plan for accompanying someone, after all two persons ‘get together’, but not talking to each other (it’s not allowed in a movie!). Ok, a bit of deviation from what I initially intended to write about.

Come back to 300. If you asked me whether or not I have enjoyed that show, I’d say yes to a certain extend. I like the graphics, the pace of the movie, and the actions, maybe purely for entertainment’s sake. From the angle of the story, I’d say it’s so-so and same ol’ same ol’! Sometimes I wonder why the western production, especially if it’s about war between the good and the evil (well, depending on which side you favor!), why must the main character(s) using old cliche like “We fight as a free man!”; “Remember this day, as it belongs to you for the rest of your life!”..blah blah blah! Don’t they all sound all too familiar? If my memory serves me right, I heard those for the first time in Brave Hearts and then they kept cropping up in other similar movies since then.

The second thing I find disillusion in this show is, I can’t really differentiate between the good (Spartans) and the evil (Xerxes’s Persian army). Although those 300 Spartans, supposedly went to war at insurmountable odds against the massive Persians to defend their home and their wives and children; the director had made it such that as if those men whose valor and sacrifice apparently came out to glorify themselves (they were ‘born to be warriors and preferably should die in war). Don’t you agree with me that they fought for the sake of violence? It resembles the Americans’ cow boys’ spirits as well as the Japanese’ boshido way.

President Bush would have enjoyed watching this show, I truly turst, because it’s definitely beneficial for him to get more ideas in creating more lame excuses to invade others’ countries, while projecting it as a heroic-save-the-world mission!