“They are not the best teachers, but they are passionate people.”

Last Saturday, I managed to attend the Seminar Pendidikan 2007 held in my faculty despite of the restless days I had over the week. This seminar was aimed at discussing the ‘Pelan Induk Pembangunan Pendidikan’. Actually what fascinated me to attend this seminar with dark circles around my both eyes was that Professor Ungku Aziz was expected to come over as one of the speakers. Unfortunately, upon some professional reasons, he could not attend. But still, my presence to this seminar was not at all a waste. In fact, it gave me a clear understanding of this ‘pelan’ that I didn’t know its existence before..Hehe…

Came as the fourth speaker of the day was the president of HELP University College, Dr Paul Chan. He was also an ex-lecturer of UM. Honestly, I started to get bored listening but suddenly, I was attracted to listen further when he began to tell us his schooling experience when he was a child. I was fond of one of his statements in describing his teachers. He told us that “they are not the best teachers, but they are passionate people.”

When I heard of this statement, my mind automatically reflected the scenario happened in Malaysia now. It’s true; most teachers nowadays do not have the passion to teach. Teaching profession is regarded as a last resort when they couldn’t find any suitable jobs, not to forget, some agreed to settle down for teacher-training course because of external pressure, not because of their willingness to become educators. My dear teacher-trainee friends, is this true? I really hope being in this course for 5 years have made all of you change your minds. I still remember during our orientation week in MPIK 5 years ago. When one of the facilitators asked who were forced by parents to enter this college. I think there were almost 65% of us raising up their hands.

I just can’t understand, until now. Why is teaching profession regarded as a last resort? Should teaching be put as a last choice? Is it too bad? Why can’t people in Malaysia think highly of teachers? Is teaching children a so terrible work? I don’t know… I’m not a teacher yet. But I have a little experience of being a teacher. It’ true, teaching is not an easy job. Teaching is a job which requires a full commitment but rewarded a low salary. Maybe that’s the reason why teaching nowadays is considered as a last resort. Yeah...Compared to Singapore, it’s their culture that teachers should be highly regarded that makes teaching one of the most highly paid job (teachers in Singapore would at least be paid SD4000 a month! Can you believe it?).

And for some teachers who have been working in this field for years, I think they have lost their passion too. They just teach in order to fulfill the requirement of the job. They don’t take teaching as their responsibilities anymore. Whether the children understand or not what she/he taught doesn’t become a matter to them anymore. I hope I’m not too ‘teruk’ for saying this. To compare with teachers in the olden days, it’s definitely true; they are more passionate than teachers we have nowadays. They may not be so brilliant people but they have all the willingness to educate their people to become ‘orang’ one day.

Maybe I’m not the right person to say all these. I’m just a small future teacher with a big hope to become a passionate teacher. But do you believe a manager will die as an ordinary person but a teacher will die as a teacher?

Till then…