I don’t really like my previous post. I don’t like to read my previous post. It was up for the sake of wanting to write about raya celebration. Plus, I was feeling rather pressured for not having any news or letters pertaining the transfer. Thus, the entry became emotionless and straightforward like there was no heart and soul being put into it.

Anyway, I called up Bahagian Sekolah in Putrajaya again yesterday but was not able to get through. So after I had my afternoon nap, it came to my mind that maybe WP Kuala Lumpur has its own Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri (JPN). All this while, I thought that WPKL and WP Putrajaya fall under the same JPN which is in Putrajaya. I googled JPN WPKL and I got its address and contact number. I called them up telling them that I have not received the letter and was still clueless about my new school. The kind lady on the other line informed me of my new school.

It’s SK Convent (2) Bukit Nanas yo.

So much for wanting to be in KL la kan. Hambik kau. Rasakan. Dapat kat tengah-tengah KL.

La la la la.

Two new teachers came in today. And it makes the fact that I will soon leave this place become more real now.

One of them is an English option so he is going to replace me when I’m gone.

The PK1 came to see me early in the morning, giving me the opportunity to choose which class to be handed over the the new teacher. So, yours truly chose Year 2, Year 4 and Year 5.

I will still be teaching Year 3 and Year 6. Reasons for not handing over these two classes are, one, Year 6 will be sitting for their UPSR in 5 weeks time and, two, I just love my Year 3 kids that I feel so sayangggggg to let them go. They are naive yet cheeky, respect you to the max because you are the teacher and their eagerness and willingness in learning beats everyone else in this school.

Not that I don’t like teaching the other three classes but I have my own reasons. I admit that I don’t have such patience to teach slow learners and when I’m teaching Year 2, I felt so bored for the fact that they need to be guided in everything especially in writing answers. They want the answers to be shown to them.

As for Year 5, I want them to get use to the ways of teaching by the new teacher so that they are not as shock when they come to that vital stage in Year 6.

And for Year 4, could I just say that I’m tired teaching them? Or that teaching them is stressing me out? There’s too much to handle with the Year 4. One is so hard headed that all punishments does not work with him anymore, even by saying, ‘If you respect me as your teacher, you do your homework. If you don’t, I take it as you have no respect for me at all.’ Then there are some who are more advanced than the others but kept on making me annoyed like not listening to simple instructions and going through my stuff just to be able to have a peek at their monthly test marks. I felt so tensed teaching this class. I thought I was the only one feeling so but not, all colleagues feel the same too. At times, I feel like telling them that one of the reasons that I asked for a transfer is for the way they treated me as a teacher, and that I felt they are rather disrespectful. But I guess that is just too much, kan.

So, I am left with only 19 periods from the 41 I had before. An average of two to two-and-a-half hours of teaching everyday except for Friday. No classes at all on Friday.

I am so used to having back to back classes and teaching for an average of four to five hours a day that I asked myself what am I going to do with all the free times? Ha ha. Fret not, I have the library and tons of books to keep me occupy.

Semoga segala urusan dipermudahkan. I’m hoping for the best. Amin.

Mencemburui gaji guru

Oleh WAHID HASHIM
[email protected]

SAYA mencemburui guru muda kerana gaji permulaan mereka sekarang berada dalam ranking ketiga selepas doktor dan jurutera awam. Dengan gaji permulaan sebanyak RM2,500 hingga RM2,700 – termasuk beberapa elaun – maka gaji pokok mereka sebenarnya mengatasi sebahagian besar pendapatan eksekutif syarikat swasta.

Kalau di pedalaman, mereka cuci kaki kerana kerajaan menyediakan rumah, televisyen katil tilam, dapur, malah khabarnya set televisyen dan ‘mangkuk’ Astro di bumbung! Bukan itu sahaja, guru juga ada elaun khas, dengan jumlahnya bergantung kepada tafsiran pedalaman tempat mereka mengajar.

Memang mereka bekerja keras. Tetapi, seribu satu pengumuman tentang kenaikan, elaun, kebajikan, kemuliaan, pengiktirafan dan penghormatan kepada golongan guru sepatutnya telah meletakkan profesion itu pada tahap yang sepatutnya sekarang.

Seperti kata Abraham Lincoln: ”Jangan fikir apa yang negara boleh beri kepada kita, tetapi fikirkanlah apa sumbangan yang boleh kita berikan kepada negara.”

Maksud tokoh itu, jangan seperti seekor burung yang keluar pagi balik petang, sekadar mahu mengisi perut sendiri dan untuk anak-anaknya. Berfikirlah lebih daripada itu. Perjuangan lebih penting.

Jadi, apabila Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mahu bersemuka dengan ahli kesatuan dan beberapa guru yang terlalu ghairah memperjuangkan nasib guru, maka saya ingin mengingatkan ‘kepala-kepala’ persatuan dan kesatuan ini supaya bersedia dengan fakta dan hujah yang waras dan logik atau laras senapang mungkin akan menghala ke arah kepala anda sendiri!

Dua isu besar yang selalu dibangkitkan ialah kerja perkeranian nan remeh temeh sehingga menambah beban seorang guru, dan kedua kenaikan gred atau mata gaji yang terlalu lembap oleh guru, apabila dibandingkan dengan pegawai tadbir dan diplomatik (PTD).

Memang isu yang pertama selalu bermain di bibir, tetapi tidak ada kes, data atau contoh yang boleh dijadikan asas kukuh untuk Kementerian Pelajaran melakukan tindakan susulan.

Kita perlu perhalusi bukti dan fakta. Kalau dikatakan kerja berlebihan, maka kerja lebih yang bagaimana, apa dan di mana? Nyatakan bukti dan skop. Lakukan analisis keperluan atau analisis jurang profesion. Kemukakan kertas lengkap kepada pejabat Menteri Pelajaran.

Apakah berlebihan seandainya seorang guru diminta membuat plan tindakan kecemerlangan pelajar kalau pelan itu boleh membantu meningkatkan prestasi sesebuah sekolah?

Kini sudah terdapat seramai 400,000 guru yang mendidik anak-anak kita di seluruh negara. Dalam setandan, ada sebiji yang rosak. Bukan semua. Kita faham benar dengan kekecewaan guru khususnya apabila isu tentang kenaikan gaji yang lembap disuarakan.

Memang benar kenaikan sebahagian besar gaji memang lembap berbanding PTD. Seorang ibu yang sudah 25 tahun menjadi guru mungkin baru menikmati mata gaji DG48, berbanding anaknya, pegawai PTD yang baru lima tahun berkhidmat sudah menikmati tangga gaji itu.

Untunglah kalangan guru yang cepat naik pangkat, kerana cepat jugalah kenaikan tangga gaji mereka. Bagi yang di bawah Khusus Untuk Penyandang (KUP) atau mengikut tempoh perkhidmatan, maka terpaksalah menunggu sehingga beranak, bercucu dan bercicit.

Tetapi perlulah juga diingatkan bahawa bagi setiap kenaikan gaji, maka ada beban tanggungjawab yang menyusulinya.

Maksudnya, mereka ini mungkin perlu diikat dengan konsep bai’ah. Pengetua dan guru besar mungkin sudah biasa dengan konsep bai’ah, tetapi belum bagi guru.Di bawah konsep bai’ah, pengetua atau guru besar membuat perakuan dan bersetuju bahawa dalam tempoh tiga tahun perlu ada peningkatan prestasi di sekolah mereka mengajar. Jika gagal, mereka mungkin ‘dipencenkan’ lebih awal.

Sekarang, guru tidak mempunyai komitmen atau akujanji terhadap pencapaian prestasi. Hal ini mungkin menyebabkan mereka goyang kaki.

Memang kita faham benar akan beban kerja guru dan pada masa yang sama masyarakat menuntut guru melakukan yang terbaik untuk mendidik anak bangsa. Namun, kalau kita percaya bahawa perbuatan baik dan kerja yang ikhlas akan dibalas dengan perkara yang baik juga, maka pasti kepentingan perjuangan kita akan mengatasi habuan dunia yang sementara ini.

Taken from Utusan Online: http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2010&dt=0329&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Pendidikan&pg=pe_01.htm

Encik Wahid Hashim,

Now, tell me, which new teacher earns a basic salary of 2.5-2.7k?

For all I know, new teachers are either graduated from the KPLI course or the Bachelor of Education course which allows them to earn DC41’s salary at P1T5, RM1901.80 monthly.

If you tell me that the government provides teachers with fully furnished house with Astro, you are definitely wrong. It clearly shows that either you have never been to any school in Pedalaman area or you are making simple generalisation.

I live in a house provided by the government.  The house is empty except for a wardrobe in each room and kitchen cabinet. No bed, no mattress and definitely no TV. If a new teacher came into a house fully furnished as what you have mentioned, it was the hardship of the teacher living before them to make the house all complete. I have to wait six months before I have a TV and a decoder. I have been sleeping on air mattress. I went through a period of darkness when the solar hybrid had a major failure, and the solar is still having problems gearing up that left us sitting in the dark during the night.

I am considered lucky to be staying in a new single-storey house. Other teachers have to make do with the old quarters that squakes when they walk, have no kitchen and have no bathroom or toilet inside their house.

When you talk about evidence of teachers having to do other work apart from teaching, what kind of evidence that you want? A stated black and white documentation of what need to be done? It’s all in the Rekod Pengajaran Harian.

The schools in Pedalaman area are still lacking in the number of teachers and staff. Teachers have to take up other administration posts to make the school runs smoothly. Schools in the urban area have their own technicians and librarian. Schools in Pedalaman do not have that. In fact teachers have to be the librarians, teachers have to become technicians. A Pekeliling was circulated about teachers with special posts like Guru Data and Guru Pusat Sumber will only have a maximum of 18 teaching periods a week. However, in most schools in Pedalaman, this does not happen. Some Guru Pemulihan has to take over the post of Guru Data. Some Guru Pusat Sumber still have to teach 37 periods of English due to the lack of teachers. With 37 periods to teach, these teachers are left with only ONE free period everyday thus slowing them down from getting the library administrative work done.

You may easily say, come in the afternoon and get all the work done. You see, teaching in schools in Pedalaman may be easy because of the small number of students. However, due to the lack of exposure, teaching them is even harder than teaching a number of 40 students in a class from an urban school. Having to teach and average of 7-8 periods a day will leave the teachers feeling knackered and fatigue by the end of the day. And that from teaching alone.

When you talk about teachers are not bounded by ‘prestasi sesebuah sekolah’, if we are not bounded by that, tell me, why do we still have UPSR, PMR, SPM and STPM? What makes you say that teachers are not binded with the commitment towards the achievement of the school? Each year, teacher and students have to work hard to make sure that the school achieve its target, to make sure that the percentage of pass or As increase. If a school does not perform, the teachers have to answer to that, the GB or the Pengetua has to answer to that.

Encik Wahid Hashim,

You have to understand that the Elaun Pedalaman that we receive is for us to spend on going in and out of schools. You see, Pedalaman is far from town. Some Pedalaman area allows no landed vehicles to reach to that place. When you live far away from a town, you have to pay a lot for the transportation.

Take for example a teacher who is going out to get his errands done in Sandakan because there is no ATM or bank in Beluran. A shared boat ride from Kampung Bukit Besi to Beluran will cost RM25 per person. If this person has no car and have to take a lift, he will need another Rm18 to get to Sandakan. When he completes all his errands, he needs another RM18 to get back to Beluran and another RM 25 to get back to Kampung Bukit Besi. Every trip to Sandakan will cost him and approximate of RM86. A trip out every weekend, a trip out to get to meetings and courses will eventually finishes the Elaun Pedalaman that he receives every month.

That does not include all the expensive fare tickets that teachers from Semenanjung have to bare with just to be able to see their loved ones.

At the end of the day, the pay that we receive every month is at par with those who live in cities.

The Ministry of Education is trying to implement that all new teachers have to teach in Pedalaman area first, before they are allowed to transfer to another school. An incentive for teachers is necessary if the Ministry is implementing this. Teachers in Pedalaman will have something to look forward to at the end of the month for their willingness to be apart of urbanisation and to be apart from their loved ones.

Encik Wahid Hashim,

If you are jealous with teachers in Pedalaman for earning Elaun Pedalaman and another Elaun Tambahan Khas, why not you come and stay here in Pedalaman, come and teach here in Pedalaman. You will get those incentives too. What say you?

No?

I guessed so.

p/s: Encik Wahid Hisham, maybe you should read this too.

Remember the saikopath from school I was telling you about?

And the fact that we did not report him to the GB because he apologised?

Well, today, GB paid a small visit to the library and we had a small talk. He asked nicely whether have I been harassed either physically or verbally by any other colleague and demanded that I need to be honest.

So I told him everything. Not every single little details lah but something that sums up the whole thing. I told him that I have been harassed verbally and I know that the saikopath has been harassing my colleague physically.

I even told him about last time when my colleague and I decided to tell him about the saikopath but since the saikopath apologised, we decided not to and gave him another last chance. If he ever harass us again, we would go straight to the GB.

What actually happened was the saikopath purposely touched my colleague’s hand. My colleague, holding on to her words and at the same time not knowing how to talk to GB about this, reported it to another staff who then reported this to GB.

That was how GB got to know.

GB told me that it was important for us to tell him this thing so that he can gather the evidence that the saikopath has been a, well, hurm, saiko. He will then make necessary acts to stop this saikopath from being even saiko-er.

During the small meeting with the whole staff, GB produced a Surat Pekeliling on sexual harassment and workplace. He reminded us that its an offence to actually harass your colleague.

Everyone knows that, kan? Except maybe the saikopath la kan. That is why he’s a saikopath. No?

So let’s see from now on. Let’s see whether the saikopath will stop harassing or just ignoring the warnings like what he have been doing all this while.