get real coaches instead of training sports teachers

I am totally disagree with Datuk Azalina suggestion that sports teachers should go for training in order to be qualify enough to coach students.

Last week, Datuk Hishamuddin just raised a big issue that teachers are already overburdened and spent 38 days of training per year. Don't forget that most of these sports teachers do teach other subjects as well.

Isn't it the responsibility of the government to find ways to lessen their burden instead of adding more work and expectations on them? Sports teachers are not ironmen or women.

We have a lot of sportsmen in our country that the ministry can train and turn them into qualified coaches in schools. Although our sportsmen are not competitive internationally but at least they are good and comfortable at home.

Islamic world leaders' responsibility in fighting terrorism

The barbaric act of terrorism happened in the western world last week and the Islamic world leaders do nothing except sending condolences to Blair and the Londoners and condemn the sinful act. That's it!

Perhaps the Islamic world think that this is not happening at their own backyard and it is better for them to mind their own internal issues.

However, I believe it is the time for the Islamic world leaders to own the responsibility. They should stand up, unveil the root cause and fight against terrorism that tarnish the image of Islam. Yes, terrorism has no nothing to do with religion but the world is not seeing it that way. Islamic world leaders should list terrorism as their top agenda, create a strong action plan and start to educate the world that terrorism is the no. 1 enemy of Islam.

Don't wait for Bush or Blair to take the matter into their own hands as it will only create more conflicts and prejudices against Islam.

8 reasons why teachers are not overburdened

Recently the Ministry of Education and National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) claimed that teachers from four states (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Malacca) are overburdened in their job particularly with the addition of new subjects and extra duties related to co-curricular and curricular activities. Here are the reasons why I don't think so.

1. Science and Mathematics are not new subjects. Teachers are paid extra incentives under the program ETeMS (English for Teaching Mathematics and Science).

2. Co-curricular activities are compulsory. Stop complaining or quit being a teacher.

3. Teachers spend extra hours after school to give tuition under the tuition voucher scheme (Skim Baucer Tuisyen) which financially benefited them.

4. Teachers spending 74 hours per week? That's 12.33 hours per day for 6 days? You mean they are working in school from 7.30 a.m. -8.00 p.m. on Saturday as well?

5. Teachers are spending 38 days feasting instead of training.

6. Teachers filled in 108 types of forms. For example, annual leave form, emergency leave form, cuti bersalin form, etc.

7. Teachers complain so that the ministry will sympathize and agree to shortened the time spent in school. This will allow them to have extra hours for tuition business.

8. The complaining teachers are teachers who do not have passion in teaching. (Don't they watch Boston Public?. Mr Harper and his teachers works from day to night and they never complain.)

5 questionable assumptions about schooling in Malaysia

1. The aim of schooling is to get all students to the same place at about the same time.

The education system expects students at the age of 15 to sit for PMR and by 17 or 18 to complete SPM. Hence below average students who were automatically promoted to Form 4 (although they didn't do well in PMR) struggle in SPM.

I once encountered a Year 6 student who can't even write a proper sentence in English nor Bahasa Melayu. Her parents asked permission from school to allow their daughter to study Year 6 for another year. However the school principal objected as it will affected the school track record. The girl failed in UPSR and continued to struggle in secondary school.

2. A teacher should work with 30-40 students for an academic year, and then students should move to another teacher.

Usually teachers resist working with the same group of students for two or three years period. It is understandable that teachers want to teach the same level or subjects as it makes their job easier.

By the time teacher get to know the students and their parents better, the students move on to another teacher.

3. The best form of school organization is age-grading.
This assumption is related to the previous two. The idea is very simply whereby children of the same age should be grouped together. The age-graded school system is an administrative convenience but has very little to do with what we know about child development.

4. The best way to identify schools that work well is to examine their students' test scores.

Principal, teachers, students, parents and the society judges a school through test scores. However, the function of school is broader and deeper. There is more in life than exams like co-curriculum, school's contributions, etc.

With the recent cheerleading competition at the national level, at least I see some good sign that schools are being honoured for something else besides tests.

5. The primary content that students learn in school is what their teachers intend to teach them.

Some proactive students tend to crave for more information than what the teachers intend to teach them. While teachers will teach according to the national syllabus, some teachers only teach what's in the book without further explanation or giving any good examples.

Instead of being textbook- or workbook- based, teachers should encourage students to find more information through research of certain topics that interest them.