SHAH ALAM - Mental health and additional teachers' training after the pandemic is needed to fill in gaps after the two-year lockdown, said Malaysian Association for Education President Datuk Satinah Syed Saleh.
She told Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek and her deputy minister Lim Hui Ying that the lack of care for teachers’ well-being and a heavy workload were the core reasons for worsening mental health among teachers.
"We do not take care of our teachers and that is why their mental health is becoming worse.
"The work to key in data should be given to other people. Even in other departments apart from school, they have a lot of people who do clerical work but people in education are asked to do everything themselves,” she told Sinar Daily.
Satinah said prior to this, other ministers had stated that they would assist teachers in reducing their workload but nothing has been done.
"Before this other ministers had said they wanted to help teachers but nothing happened.
"If Fadhlina does not look at the mental health issues properly, in three to four years teachers will choose optional retirement and students will be affected too.
She stressed that teachers are the core of education and the education minister needs to address their state of mental health to improve the system.
"No matter how great the teachers are right now, if we ignore their needs, they will feel exhausted. We need to show love and care for them. That is my hope for Fadhlina and her deputy, Lim."
Meanwhile, Satinah also said that Malaysian teachers do not have enough training provided after the pandemic.
"The teachers were already trained before but they need to be trained on teaching methods after the pandemic because, after two years of the pandemic, it is now slightly different.
"Our assessment is now different, not like before. We should think about how to assess our students as we cannot do the way we did before."
She told Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek and her deputy minister Lim Hui Ying that the lack of care for teachers’ well-being and a heavy workload were the core reasons for worsening mental health among teachers.
"We do not take care of our teachers and that is why their mental health is becoming worse.
"The work to key in data should be given to other people. Even in other departments apart from school, they have a lot of people who do clerical work but people in education are asked to do everything themselves,” she told Sinar Daily.
Satinah said prior to this, other ministers had stated that they would assist teachers in reducing their workload but nothing has been done.
"Before this other ministers had said they wanted to help teachers but nothing happened.
"If Fadhlina does not look at the mental health issues properly, in three to four years teachers will choose optional retirement and students will be affected too.
She stressed that teachers are the core of education and the education minister needs to address their state of mental health to improve the system.
"No matter how great the teachers are right now, if we ignore their needs, they will feel exhausted. We need to show love and care for them. That is my hope for Fadhlina and her deputy, Lim."
Meanwhile, Satinah also said that Malaysian teachers do not have enough training provided after the pandemic.
"The teachers were already trained before but they need to be trained on teaching methods after the pandemic because, after two years of the pandemic, it is now slightly different.
"Our assessment is now different, not like before. We should think about how to assess our students as we cannot do the way we did before."