Overworked teachers losing their temper

2010/09/17
By Ling Poh Lean
news@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Some teachers are losing their temper with students or engaging in unprofessional conduct because they are overworked, according to the National Parent-Teacher Association Collaborative Council. Its chairman, Professor Datuk Mohamad Ali Hasan, said they were being burdened with administrative work, which led to a lack of passion, patience and professionalism.

"Some have little passion for the job. This is probably because they are being overloaded with non-academic duties, such as administrative work," he told the New Straits Times yesterday.

He said teachers needed clerical assistants for non-academic duties to help them be good teachers.
He was commenting on reports yesterday about a music teacher who threw a metal hand-percussion shaker at a pupil and another music teacher who was sentenced to 25 years' jail and two strokes of the rotan for molesting a pupil.

"I think teachers have to be disciplined before they can discipline pupils."

He suggested that teachers undergo identity crisis workshops since there had been several cases recently that highlighted a lack of morality in their ranks.

"They perhaps lose touch with their identity as a teacher when they mix with the wrong company."

National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general Loke Yim Pheng said teachers who could not follow the professional code of ethics should leave.

"We only want quality teachers who are professional enough to control their emotions."

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