Education Ministry is committed to handle teacher's workload issues - Fadhlina

LANGKAWI - Education will continue to pay attention to the issue of teachers' workload where both short-term and long-term measures will be announced to assist the education workforce in the country.

The minister, Fadhlina Sidek, stated that the ministry had previously announced seven immediate steps to reduce the workload of teachers, followed by more specific guidelines to address the issue.

"I want to emphasize that the issue of teachers' workload is our continuous commitment. To begin, we have already announced seven steps to reduce teachers' workload. There will be announcements of both short-term and long-term measures.

"We will assess from time to time because this workload issue has short-term and long-term aspects. There are more steps however, that we will take after this under the overall umbrella of teachers' welfare, " she said at a press conference today.

She made these remarks after discussing recent media reports that suggested the scope of teachers' work be clearly defined according to grades. This is to prevent them from being burdened with tasks beyond their scope of teaching.

Earlier, she inaugurated the "Mangrove-ing Our Land" program at the Langkawi UNESCO Global Geopark Discovery Center, Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, near here.

The program was organized by the National UNESCO Commission of Malaysia (SKUM) in conjunction with the UNESCO International Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem Day 2023 with the theme "Protecting nature, Better future."

Also present were senior officials from KPM, the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), teachers as well as students from Langkawi schools and environment-related stakeholders.

Fadlina mentioned that the "Mangrove-ing Our Land" program aims to raise public awareness about the role of mangrove forests as a cornerstone for sustainability of the natural environment.

"Alhamdulillah, today I also agree to provide another opportunity for students, the '1 Student, 1 Tree' planting initiative. We encourage more students to come and become ambassadors of Geopark.

"Insha-Allah, we will ensure that programs like this are implemented. I believe that Langkawi is the best place for our children to become Geopark Ambassadors, especially when talking about environmental sustainability," she said.