Say goodbye to Cikgu (insert a masculine name here)

Although World Teacher's Day is celebrated on the 5th of October, it is celebrated on the 16th of May every year in Malaysia, coinciding with the date the Razak Report, which according to Wikipedia was one of the four documents that reformed the Malaysian Education system, was announced. It included the formation of a single system of national education, Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction, formation of national and national-type schools (sekolah jenis kebangsaan).

That's a piece of history for you, if you were, or are a part of this education system.

I would imagine that the ideal situation for a teacher is for him or her to teach an elite school with good or even excellent students, where the facilities are A++ and the food are great. But of course, there are those stuck in rural areas where teaching is made hard due to the lack of basics of pre school education among students and an uncomfortable teaching atmosphere. I would certainly opt for former.

Regardless, teachers are the ones who can boast of producing all the talents you see around you.

But teaching these days is regarded as a second rated profession, a profession that earns little, so on and so forth, as all the stereotypes go. When it comes the time to choose a profession, of course the 'first class' choices would be these : doctors, engineers, lawyers and accountants. I would put teaching on par with those professions, as educating people is no easy job. The process of knowledge transmission of course requires you to be the master of your own circle before you could pass it down to others, and additionally, that process requires a methodological approach in order for them to understand.

There have been ups and downs of education in Malaysia. I still remember when i fully supported Dr M's suggestion of PPSMI and was very disappointed with the final resolution. Then i asked a friend whose mother is teacher in a rural area and he told me some of her students can't even understand the subjects even when they were taught in Bahasa Melayu. So how could they possibly understand Maths and Science in English? By saying that, i don't mean to belittle them but some of us are luckier to have come from families with an educated background.

Of course, the main goal you often hear of teaching is the 3M policy. Membaca, Menulis, Mengira. We are still a developing country so i guess it's better for us to stick to BM as the medium of teaching. It is important for the government to stick to their principles as frequent policy changes might affect the quality of teaching itself.

Then there's the issue of lack of male teachers in Malaysia, with a possibility of going extinct in 20 years time. This was in last year's News Straits Times, around August, which became one of the talking points with a friend in a Yellow Cab pizza restaurant in KL. According to his blog, it is understandable that males are traditionally the bread winners in the family, and a teacher does not earn much and therefore it becomes rather unpopular among males. A government spokesperson commented that a fresh graduate could earn up to almost RM2,600 in the link i gave you. The question is, would there be a side effect of having only female teachers in school? Would all the male students become girlish after their 11 year study in the Malaysian education system in the future? I don't know the answers, but i do want the presence of male teachers around schools just for the balance of it all.

The title of this post is dedicated to this above paragraph. Completely misleading title if you had expected something else.

For a comeback, i think i just blabbed too much. I am lucky to be taught by excellent teachers all my life compared to others who never went to school or have to stop due to financial constraints of their families. Education is everything and informally, it is a life long process from birth to death which starts from the basics taught in school.

To all my teachers, the human engineers, although i doubt there are any reading this, and to all the teachers out there, happy teacher's day.