DEAR EDITOR, Thursday, December 18, 2014 THE concern about the heavy administrative and maintenance duties for Bruneian teachers has been voiced out earlier in an article titled “Reduce admin work in teachers: MoE”. Without any doubts, I definitely agree with what the Chief Inspector of the Independent Schools Inspectorate, Christine Ryan, said regarding the significant amount of time spent by most Bruneian teachers on non-teaching matters. However, I haven’t seen or heard any solutions made by the Ministry of Education in response to this worrying issue. As a teacher, I am so grateful being able to teach and contribute to the success of our nation’s future backbone. In fact, that’s what motivates me to push through my teaching career. What concerns me is whether teachers are being fully utilised to teach or just to fulfil the duties of maintaining the school administrative system? As a teacher, my hands are tied to even mark and review my students’ papers. Almost 80 per cent of my time is spent on the admin work and what rights do I have to complain about my students’ performance when this happens? I understand that MoE has done its best in holding many sharing sessions and workshops between schools. To be honest, all these sessions could be useless when teachers’ focus are diverted towards non-teaching matters. What if all it takes to produce better teachers is to strip off all of teachers’ administrative tasks and just focus on giving high quality teaching? I believe a school is a large complex system and there’s not even one accountant or a pro-per IT technician working in it? I spent my college years in the United Kingdom and I learned that their staff included nurses, IT experts, accountants, students’ welfare expertise, non-teaching career experts and many others. I do not see why the Brunei government cannot hire the mentioned experts in schools. This would not only improve the teaching quality, it would also provide jobs for Bruneians who suffer from severe unemployment. When this issue is brought up to the ministry, the “no-budget” card is always played. I am really hoping that they are not serious about it. With Brunei’s income, it is almost impossible to believe that the government is not able to hire those experts. I really hope the government can look into this matter and see it as a way to develop Brunei’s better future. Concerned teacher, BSB bt.bn/letters-editor/2014/12/18/can-teachers-be-given-some-space-be-teachers
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 08:28:44 +0000
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