KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 860 teaching assistants have been hired on a part-time daily basis to help ease the burden of school teachers.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahadzir Khalid said the teaching assistants are currently deployed in schools in Malacca and Kedah until the end of the year.
The hiring was made under a pioneer plan to reduce teachers’ administrative workload known as Program Rintis Pemantapan Profesion Guru (PPG).
PPG is a sub-initiative under a programme known as Repositioning Teachers to Their Core Duties, launched as part of Malaysia’s National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) to positively transform the role and duties of teachers.
“The PPG had successfully reduced teachers’ workloads in clerical and information and communications technology (ICT) areas.
“The reduction of non-teaching related workloads has helped to restore the functionality and professionalism of teachers.
“Nevertheless, the implementation and expansion of PPG to the rest of the country will depend on the government’s financial ability,” he said in reply to a question by Datuk Ahmad Nazlan Idris (BN-Jerantut).
Nazlan had asked on the effectiveness of the PPG programme in reducing the teachers’ workload and whether it will be implemented nationwide.
He assured that the ministry would continue to employ the best methods in dealing with issues concerning the workloads and responsibilities of teachers.
These include the filling of vacant positions in schools, studying the needs of teaching positions, reducing and simplifying data entry tasks, refining of operational methods and reducing non-teaching and non-learning activities in schools.
Source : New Straits Times http://buff.ly/2e0aNre
Photo : padu.edu.my