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One way to encourage more non-Malays to become teachers is for the Education Ministry to hold career talks in schools.

©New Sunday Times (Used by permission)
by Chok Suat Ling

The lack of non-Malay teachers will put a dent in the government's goal to make national schools attractive to everyone, writes Chok Suat Ling.

MAULIDUR Rasul celebrations are a hugely anticipated event in schools. Muslim students are told to dress up in their best baju Melayu and baju kurung for the festivities, which are held after the national-level celebrations.

Indeed, having such events in schools is a learning experience for students. But as some parents have said, especially when the government is striving to "memperkasakan sekolah kebangsaan" or make national schools attractive to all Malaysians, similar attention should be paid to the festivities of other races.

According to some school heads, it is not that the schools refuse to hold such events; many just lack the know-how to plan them.

The majority of teachers in national schools are Malay, they say. And organising Pesta Tanglung or Ponggal-related events are not within their field of expertise, or high on their list of priorities.

A headmistress of a well-known Kuala Lumpur school says there are many ways to attract students of all races to national schools.

"The most crucial is to ensure academic excellence. Parents will send their children to schools with good public examination results."

But parents contend that the school environment should also welcome non-Malays.

The headmistress says she has appealed to the parent-teacher association (PTA) to organise multicultural events.

"Parents have brought up this issue during PTA meetings and I agree that children should be exposed to other cultures. However, it will have to be up to the PTA to plan, and for parents, especially, to take a lead role in organising them."

While the effort is laudable, putting the onus on parents is not. The school is divesting itself of its burden to parents.

It remains, therefore, that what's best for the education system is a higher percentage of non-Malay teachers in national schools.

There has been concern that national schools do not reflect the character and spirit of multi-racial Malaysia. Consequently, the need to increase the number of non-Malay teachers and school heads is imperative, as is the need to get them to be more aware and responsive to multi-racial needs and sensitivities.

Former headmaster and ex-unionist Shahul Hamid Mydin Shah has said that the government needs to look at the composition of teachers as more than 90 per cent are Malay. It is also difficult, in a random check, to find more than 10 per cent of schools having non-Malay headmasters or deputy heads.

"There was a good racial mix of teachers, even in missionary schools, in the past," Shahul Hamid says.

According to Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, the response among the Chinese remains poor.

He says the ministry had hoped to enrol 770 Chinese graduates for the 2008 post-degree teacher-training course or Kursus Perguruan Lepas Ijazah (KPLI) intake but received only about 600 applications, of which 400 were successful.

He says 6.7 per cent or 7,288 of the 108,394 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia school-leavers who applied for this year's intake for the teachers' training course are Chinese.

Several reasons have been given for the poor response.

It is said that teaching occupies a much lower rung of respectability compared with before and is not viewed as a profession of choice for various reasons: heavy workload, overbearing parents, lack of promotion prospects and being posted to remote areas.

According to retired teacher Chor Kam Fook, teaching was a respected profession in the past and it was considered an honour to be part of it.

"Until now, my former students, now adults with children, call me 'sir' when they see me," says Chor, who had wanted to be a teacher from when he was in school.

His wife is also a retired teacher. "She was persuaded by her grandmother who told her it is a good profession with many perks and long holidays."

But this mindset is apparently no longer shared by the current generation.

What is needed is a concerted push to recruit more non-Malay teachers. Better wages, perks and terms of service would be a significant pull factor, experts say.

Educators have long called for the establishment of a teachers commission, an independent body for teachers not unlike the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, or Suhakam.

With a commission to look after its welfare, the teaching profession could be separated from the civil service and put on a different salary scheme. A memorandum with this proposal was submitted to the Education Ministry in 2004.

Former headmaster and unionist Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam says: "The profession is huge and separating it from the civil service makes sense. Teachers have been urging for this for a long time as they feel their benefits do not match their efforts and contribution."

He says other civil servants can switch off from work when they leave the office, but not teachers.

"Classes might finish around noon but that does not spell the end of the day for teachers. They have other activities to attend to."

One other way to encourage more non-Malays to become teachers is for the ministry to hold career talks in schools.

"They have to tell schoolchildren about the profession, what teachers are required and expected to do and their role. This is carried out in some countries to encourage the young to consider teaching as a profession," Siva Subramaniam says.

Some, however, doubt the veracity of claims that non-Malays are disdainful of joining the teaching profession. It is argued that the situation is not as severe as perceived.

According to one teacher, "thousands" of young Chinese applied for the KPLI but failed to secure a place.

"They are keen but not given the opportunity. Only a small percentage got in. This has given rise to suspicions of a quota being imposed, that the numbers taken in are controlled. Dr Wee should interview these young people and find out the true picture," she says.

Siva Subramaniam says many non-Malays are interested but fail to secure places.

"To be fair, things have improved for teachers in terms of salary, promotions and others in the last decade, and there are more non-Malays interested in joining now. They submit their applications but are not even called up to sit the entrance test."

He urges the ministry to look into this. "Perhaps the information it is getting is not reflective of what is happening on the ground."

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