I have already submitted my application for a transfer for the second time. Do I really want to leave the school? Would I be happy in the new school? If I have a choice I would choose to stay but if I stay then the trauma continues. If I leave I am not sure if I would like the new school. To be frank, I love the students in my present school very much. Why do I love them so much? They have very good manners and know how to respect the teachers. Yesterday, when I met the 1A girls at the staircase they came to me one by one and kissed my hand. Today, the 1Y girls came to me one by one to kiss my hand. When I entered 1G for invigilation (I don't teach that class) all the students clapped their hands when they saw me. This isn't the only class doing this. Many other classes are also giving me such a warm welcome whenever I enter to relief. Although some of the boys are a bit naughty, they can still be controlled. Just mention Ustaz A or Mr B's name and they will run for their lives.
Edelweiss56 told me that in the present school that she is teaching, there was this girl who asked her for the permission to go to the toilet. When she said "no", this girl scolded her mother with the four letter word in chinese.
Do I have a choice? No, I don't. I have already asked for my students' phone numbers. Maybe I can still arrange to meet them somewhere after I left the school. I am not a race conscious person. Although my students are mostly Malays (with a few students of other races) I am so used to their ways that I care for them very much.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
WHEN MALAYSIAN TEACHERS BECOME PROFESSIONAL SPIES
What prompts me to write this article tonight? The truth is if I have a choice I wouldn't have started this blog. I have been wondering what would be the fate of Edelweiss56 (google the article "Severely Bullied Teacher" and you will know who she is) if the principal had not done anything dreadful to me. Edelweiss56 would probably have to suffer in silence again as no one would help her to write her blog and make her plight known to the world. I live in my own world. I don't care much about what is happening around me. It was the principal's bullying tactics that sparked off the courage and determination in me to seek justice for all those teachers who are in the same boat as me. And I am writing this article tonight to make it known to the world what some our teachers have metamorphosized into in order to please the principal and enhance the principal's bullying tactics.
Students should never emulate their teachers. Why am I saying this? Firstly look at the PPSMI. Despite the Malaysian Government's efforts to make our teachers learn English, the majority of them ended up learning nothing. But lo and behold! When it comes to spying and back-stabbing our Malaysian teachers rank the highest in the world. This is not my opinion alone. My friends who are teaching in other schools are telling me the same thing. Competition amongst the teachers are great. What do they compete for? The principal's affection since this would mean they can get high marks for their prestasi or they can even be a guru cemerlang. And to do so they have to back stab each other and become professional spies. My principal never enters the staffroom but she knows exactly what is happening there including how many minutes the teachers were late for class because of the "pot luck". The pot luck was banned forever because of that. Luckily I am never involved with the pot luck. Apart from hotel food, I only eat the food that I cook myself. If anyone wants to give the principal a piece of her mind, it is not necessary to tell the principal face to face. Just say it out loud in the staffroom and the principal will get the message in no time.
What makes our teachers stoop so low and gladly lick the shoes of the principal? Because they want to be guru cemerlang. So you know now what guru cemerlang means. And since the guru cemerlangs are those who would become the future principals this clearly explains why there are so many bullying cases in schools where the biggest bullies of all are none other than the principals themselves. The Rekod Penilaian Prestasi is another culprit. Because the teachers want high marks for their prestasi they would go all the way out to please the principal even if it means betraying their colleagues. Never mind. This is a dog eat dog world - the survival of the fittest. To survive and be the fittest they have to bring down others - this is human nature. Charles Darwin taught them. So this means that if a teacher wants to get high marks for her rekod prestasi she must be a good spy and she must do a lot of back stabbing. She must also know how to despise the teachers whom the principal is not in favour of. If the principal is not in favour of a particular teacher then this professional spy would take the opportunity to do some back stabbing and some spying job on her for the principal even though this particular teacher was once her good friend. What are friends anyway? They don't worth any marks. The markah prestasi is more important. Being a guru cemerlang is more important.
I don't accuse people. I write from experience. There was once a teacher who was a good friend of mine. Since the principal sent me to the gallows for asking her to certify my certs for my PhD application (as I've said earlier there was no supervisor for my field but the damage is done) her attitude towards me changed. She pretended that she didn't see me whenever she walked past me. Edelweiss56 told me that this teacher must the one who complained to the principal that she (Edelweiss56) did not do anything for the debate since both of them were in charge of the debate. I actually saw Edelweiss56 in the library training the students when I went into the library to read newspapers. Puan R (the teacher who lodged a police report against the principal) told me it was the same teacher who betrayed her - telling bad things about her to the principal. That was why the principal interrogated Puan R for three hours in the presence of other witnesses. During the interrogation the principal even called this teacher in front of Puan R to confirm that Puan R has indeed committed a "crime".
This teacher is not the only spy in my school. Of course there are others and it is not difficult to tell from their behaviour that they have been elevated to a higher position i.e. professional spy. They all react in the same way. People who used to be nice and friendly but who are no longer nice and friendly are those who have become spies. You don't even have to ask them. Their behaviour is enough proof. And of course you can see them spying outside the classroom. Looking for evidence to penalize me and then report to the principal I suppose. This is their mission. Why should they be nice and friendly to someone whom the principal is bullying? I consider this a very shameful thing to happen in Malaysia. The school environment should be a harmonious environment where the teachers' most important mission is to educate the children. However, the opposite seems to be true. Since when did our principals become big bullies and our teachers become professional spies? Since when did back stabbing become the norm in our Malaysian schools? Is it because time has changed? What will our society become in the year 2020? Surely we do not want our children to emulate their teachers and grow up to become hypocrites! Perhaps it's time for the ministry to look into what is really going on in the schools instead of just focusing on guru cemerlang, markah prestasi cemerlang and pengetua cemerlang. We do not want our future generation to become hypocrites cemerlang.
Students should never emulate their teachers. Why am I saying this? Firstly look at the PPSMI. Despite the Malaysian Government's efforts to make our teachers learn English, the majority of them ended up learning nothing. But lo and behold! When it comes to spying and back-stabbing our Malaysian teachers rank the highest in the world. This is not my opinion alone. My friends who are teaching in other schools are telling me the same thing. Competition amongst the teachers are great. What do they compete for? The principal's affection since this would mean they can get high marks for their prestasi or they can even be a guru cemerlang. And to do so they have to back stab each other and become professional spies. My principal never enters the staffroom but she knows exactly what is happening there including how many minutes the teachers were late for class because of the "pot luck". The pot luck was banned forever because of that. Luckily I am never involved with the pot luck. Apart from hotel food, I only eat the food that I cook myself. If anyone wants to give the principal a piece of her mind, it is not necessary to tell the principal face to face. Just say it out loud in the staffroom and the principal will get the message in no time.
What makes our teachers stoop so low and gladly lick the shoes of the principal? Because they want to be guru cemerlang. So you know now what guru cemerlang means. And since the guru cemerlangs are those who would become the future principals this clearly explains why there are so many bullying cases in schools where the biggest bullies of all are none other than the principals themselves. The Rekod Penilaian Prestasi is another culprit. Because the teachers want high marks for their prestasi they would go all the way out to please the principal even if it means betraying their colleagues. Never mind. This is a dog eat dog world - the survival of the fittest. To survive and be the fittest they have to bring down others - this is human nature. Charles Darwin taught them. So this means that if a teacher wants to get high marks for her rekod prestasi she must be a good spy and she must do a lot of back stabbing. She must also know how to despise the teachers whom the principal is not in favour of. If the principal is not in favour of a particular teacher then this professional spy would take the opportunity to do some back stabbing and some spying job on her for the principal even though this particular teacher was once her good friend. What are friends anyway? They don't worth any marks. The markah prestasi is more important. Being a guru cemerlang is more important.
I don't accuse people. I write from experience. There was once a teacher who was a good friend of mine. Since the principal sent me to the gallows for asking her to certify my certs for my PhD application (as I've said earlier there was no supervisor for my field but the damage is done) her attitude towards me changed. She pretended that she didn't see me whenever she walked past me. Edelweiss56 told me that this teacher must the one who complained to the principal that she (Edelweiss56) did not do anything for the debate since both of them were in charge of the debate. I actually saw Edelweiss56 in the library training the students when I went into the library to read newspapers. Puan R (the teacher who lodged a police report against the principal) told me it was the same teacher who betrayed her - telling bad things about her to the principal. That was why the principal interrogated Puan R for three hours in the presence of other witnesses. During the interrogation the principal even called this teacher in front of Puan R to confirm that Puan R has indeed committed a "crime".
This teacher is not the only spy in my school. Of course there are others and it is not difficult to tell from their behaviour that they have been elevated to a higher position i.e. professional spy. They all react in the same way. People who used to be nice and friendly but who are no longer nice and friendly are those who have become spies. You don't even have to ask them. Their behaviour is enough proof. And of course you can see them spying outside the classroom. Looking for evidence to penalize me and then report to the principal I suppose. This is their mission. Why should they be nice and friendly to someone whom the principal is bullying? I consider this a very shameful thing to happen in Malaysia. The school environment should be a harmonious environment where the teachers' most important mission is to educate the children. However, the opposite seems to be true. Since when did our principals become big bullies and our teachers become professional spies? Since when did back stabbing become the norm in our Malaysian schools? Is it because time has changed? What will our society become in the year 2020? Surely we do not want our children to emulate their teachers and grow up to become hypocrites! Perhaps it's time for the ministry to look into what is really going on in the schools instead of just focusing on guru cemerlang, markah prestasi cemerlang and pengetua cemerlang. We do not want our future generation to become hypocrites cemerlang.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
SHOULD I LODGE A POLICE REPORT?
There are news that the present principal may be transferred to another school. Everyone seems to be talking about it with excitement. When I told Edelweiss56 about it, she got a shock. She left the school because of my present principal. Since her principal would be retiring soon, there is the possibility that my present principal (her former principal) may be transferred to her school. Guess what she said? She said that if my present principal really goes to her school she would lodge a police report. The reason why she wanted to lodge a police report is clearly written in her blog article entitled "Severely Bullied Teacher". (Just google this article and you will find it). In fact this article was listed by Google when it first came out.
Something happened in my school on the 13th. of May 2010. That was a few months back. One of our colleagues, Puan R, who was interrogated for 3 hours by my present principal went to lodge a police report immediately after that. When Edelweiss56 saw her crying after the interrogation, (Edelweiss56 was still teaching in my school at that time) she quickly looked for me and told me what happened to Puan R. Puan R then told me that she was being interrogated for three hours by the principal. During these three hours she was not allowed to eat even though she was hungry. This really reminds me of how the criminals are being interrogated by the police. Is Puan R a criminal? The principal also threatened Puan R telling Puan R that she would give her 70 marks only for her prestasi this year. That was why Puan R cried so bitterly. Puan R's husband who is a police came to the school that day and they invited us (Edelweiss56 and I) to go to the police station with them to lodge a police report against the principal. At first we were very eager to go. But later, I changed my mind. I did not want to create trouble since I have already written my blog article about the principal's bullying case and taught Edelweiss56 to write hers. Edelweiss56 then said that we can still make the police report if the principal gives us less than 80 marks in the laporan penilaian prestasi since only the police report can invalidate the marks that are given irrationally.
What the principal did to me was clearly written in my blog article entitled "Oppression in a Secondary School in Kuala Lumpur". (Just google this article and you can find it). Did I do the wrong thing when I declined Puan R's offer to lodge a police report against the principal? Puan R is very safe now since she has a police report. Should the principal give her below 80 marks, the marks will be invalidated by her police report. Edelweiss56 called me yesterday and said that I can still make the police report now. Well, let's see how many marks she will give me first!
Something happened in my school on the 13th. of May 2010. That was a few months back. One of our colleagues, Puan R, who was interrogated for 3 hours by my present principal went to lodge a police report immediately after that. When Edelweiss56 saw her crying after the interrogation, (Edelweiss56 was still teaching in my school at that time) she quickly looked for me and told me what happened to Puan R. Puan R then told me that she was being interrogated for three hours by the principal. During these three hours she was not allowed to eat even though she was hungry. This really reminds me of how the criminals are being interrogated by the police. Is Puan R a criminal? The principal also threatened Puan R telling Puan R that she would give her 70 marks only for her prestasi this year. That was why Puan R cried so bitterly. Puan R's husband who is a police came to the school that day and they invited us (Edelweiss56 and I) to go to the police station with them to lodge a police report against the principal. At first we were very eager to go. But later, I changed my mind. I did not want to create trouble since I have already written my blog article about the principal's bullying case and taught Edelweiss56 to write hers. Edelweiss56 then said that we can still make the police report if the principal gives us less than 80 marks in the laporan penilaian prestasi since only the police report can invalidate the marks that are given irrationally.
What the principal did to me was clearly written in my blog article entitled "Oppression in a Secondary School in Kuala Lumpur". (Just google this article and you can find it). Did I do the wrong thing when I declined Puan R's offer to lodge a police report against the principal? Puan R is very safe now since she has a police report. Should the principal give her below 80 marks, the marks will be invalidated by her police report. Edelweiss56 called me yesterday and said that I can still make the police report now. Well, let's see how many marks she will give me first!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
BORANG PENILAIAN PRESTASI - THE PRINCIPALS' WEAPON TO CHASTISE TEACHERS
My school normally gave out the prestasi forms for the teachers to fill in by the middle of the year but this year we only got it after the retirement of Puan M, the afternoon supervisor. (Puan M retired on the 1st of October 2010). Is it because the principal doesn't want Puan M to evaluate the teachers because Puan M cannot be manipulated by her? Puan M is actually a very nice person who is forever kind to the teachers. And Puan M is the one who should evaluate the teachers who are teaching in the afternoon since she is the afternoon supervisor and she is with us all the time. Puan F (the PK 1) is not so kind. Whatever happens, she will side the principal. If the principal is nice to you, she will talk to you nicely and vice versa. And she is certainly NOT the right person to evaluate the afternoon session teachers. By 1.40 p.m. she would have already gone back home. How does she know what the afternoon session teachers are doing? I suspect that there is something fishy going on here. Oh my God, what is happening to the schools in Malaysia? Just imagine the two of them giving marks to the teachers and these are the marks that will determine whether the teachers can have their promotion and/or increment or not the following year. What will happen to the teachers whom they do not like? Not too fair, isn't it?
Throughout my teaching career, I have never bothered much about the borang prestasi. I just signed my part and handed in the forms every year without asking how many marks I got. I just couldn't be bothered what marks I would get because I trusted my former principals. But this year is different (If you want to know why, just google "Oppression in a Secondary School in Kuala Lumpur). After being sent to the gallows for asking the principal to certify my certs because I wanted to apply to do a PhD, I know that the principal would not give me too many marks this year. Although my application was rejected because there was no supervisor to supervise my field of research, the damage cannot be undone. What should I do now? Should I sign the form or not? If I sign, I am sure that she will give me very low marks. If I don't, what kind of action will she take against me? Either way, I am condemned to hell. But first of all, is it legal to ask someone to sign something she doesn't know? Signing the prestasi form is like putting my signature on a piece of blank paper. I will never know the consequences of it until something bad happens to me and by that time it's already too late. The principal can give me very low marks and write anything she wants about me on the prestasi form and it is assumed that I have accepted the marks and all her comments even though I am forced to sign the form beforehand.
My friend, Edelweiss 56, (the teacher who wrote the article "Severely Bullied Teacher" in the Mystar Blog - just google this title and you will find her article) told me that her promotion from DG41 to DG 48 in the year 2001 was delayed for two years because her principal and PK1 gave her very low marks. When she checked her marks at the ministry she found out that she was given 79.64 marks that year, still short of 0.36 marks for her promotion. She called NUTP and was told that she should see the Timbalan Pengarah over this matter since her school did not follow procedure i.e. the teachers should see the marks first before they sign. When she went to the Education Ministry to plead for justice in the hope that the 0.36 marks would be given to her, the Timbalan Pengarah told her that he couldn't do anything because she has already signed the forms and no changes could be made even though her school did not follow procedure. When Edelweiss56 asked to be transferred to another school immediately, the Timbalan Pengarah told her to wait till the end of the year and see what marks she would get. She waited till the end of the year and this time she was given only 63 marks because she did something she shouldn't do i.e. called NUTP and sought justice from the Timbalan Pengarah. She went to see the Timbalan Pengarah again and he told her the same old story i.e. since she had signed the prestasi form beforehand she had to accept her fate. The question is, are the marks valid if she was forced to sign the form before the principal wrote the marks and her bad comments on it? I am not sure about Malaysian law but does this mean that in Malaysia it is legal to force someone to sign on a piece of blank paper and then be held responsible for whatever outcome that flows from it? Malaysia is a civilized country and surely this kind of uncivilized thing shouldn't be allowed to happen here without our Prime Minister's knowledge.
Edelweiss just called me and told me about the teacher in Kuantan who sued her principal for damages amounting to RM228000 for denying her the right to her yearly increments by giving her very low marks. I truly sympathize with this teacher and I really salute her for her courage to seek justice. And tonight I am writing this blog article to seek justice not only for myself but also for all those teachers who are suffering in silence but dare not voice out their grievances.
Edelweiss56 is one of them. She lost more than RM10000 because her promotion was delayed for two years and if she didn't tell me about it no one would know how much she suffered. Here I would like to take the oppportunity to make her plight known to the whole world.
Edelweiss56 is a very dedicated teacher. After she was transfered to a new school, her new principal gave 85 marks the following year. In the same year she was also given the anugerah perkhidmatan cemerlang. The same teacher doing the same amount of work but how come she got low marks for one year and high marks the following year plus the anugerah perkhidmatan cemerlang? The answer is very obvious. If the principal likes her then she can get high marks for her prestasi but if the principal doesn't like her she is sure to get very low marks. Thus we can see how biased, prejudiced and unfair the principals can be when giving marks to the teachers. Can we trust them to evaluate the teachers?
Let's see what marks the principal will give me this year. I have been doing my work in the same way all these years. In fact this year I am given more work than the previous years. This year, I am the coordinator for English in the afternoon, I have to do relief timetable for those teachers who are absent, and since the temporary English teacher left on 1st June I have to take over another extra class. With the retirement of Puan M, I have yet to mark the English papers of another extra class for the coming final exam. If the marks that the principal and the PK1 give me are less than what I got last year, the reason for it is very obvious.
Principals who are themselves not much better than the teachers or may even be worse than them are given the authority to chastise the teachers they do not like. And what rights do these principals have? Teachers who know how to bodek and spy for the principals are given very high marks whilst those who only want to make an honest living are sent to the gallows. Everyone knows that it's no use working hard nowadays. One must learn to work smart and to work smart means that one has to be extremely selfish, cruel and cunning. No, this kind of shameful thing shouldn't be allowed to happen in Malaysia. Malaysia, a country where peace and justice is dear to all ... Let there be justice for all. It's time for the borang penilaian prestasi to be thrown into the garbage bin.
Throughout my teaching career, I have never bothered much about the borang prestasi. I just signed my part and handed in the forms every year without asking how many marks I got. I just couldn't be bothered what marks I would get because I trusted my former principals. But this year is different (If you want to know why, just google "Oppression in a Secondary School in Kuala Lumpur). After being sent to the gallows for asking the principal to certify my certs because I wanted to apply to do a PhD, I know that the principal would not give me too many marks this year. Although my application was rejected because there was no supervisor to supervise my field of research, the damage cannot be undone. What should I do now? Should I sign the form or not? If I sign, I am sure that she will give me very low marks. If I don't, what kind of action will she take against me? Either way, I am condemned to hell. But first of all, is it legal to ask someone to sign something she doesn't know? Signing the prestasi form is like putting my signature on a piece of blank paper. I will never know the consequences of it until something bad happens to me and by that time it's already too late. The principal can give me very low marks and write anything she wants about me on the prestasi form and it is assumed that I have accepted the marks and all her comments even though I am forced to sign the form beforehand.
My friend, Edelweiss 56, (the teacher who wrote the article "Severely Bullied Teacher" in the Mystar Blog - just google this title and you will find her article) told me that her promotion from DG41 to DG 48 in the year 2001 was delayed for two years because her principal and PK1 gave her very low marks. When she checked her marks at the ministry she found out that she was given 79.64 marks that year, still short of 0.36 marks for her promotion. She called NUTP and was told that she should see the Timbalan Pengarah over this matter since her school did not follow procedure i.e. the teachers should see the marks first before they sign. When she went to the Education Ministry to plead for justice in the hope that the 0.36 marks would be given to her, the Timbalan Pengarah told her that he couldn't do anything because she has already signed the forms and no changes could be made even though her school did not follow procedure. When Edelweiss56 asked to be transferred to another school immediately, the Timbalan Pengarah told her to wait till the end of the year and see what marks she would get. She waited till the end of the year and this time she was given only 63 marks because she did something she shouldn't do i.e. called NUTP and sought justice from the Timbalan Pengarah. She went to see the Timbalan Pengarah again and he told her the same old story i.e. since she had signed the prestasi form beforehand she had to accept her fate. The question is, are the marks valid if she was forced to sign the form before the principal wrote the marks and her bad comments on it? I am not sure about Malaysian law but does this mean that in Malaysia it is legal to force someone to sign on a piece of blank paper and then be held responsible for whatever outcome that flows from it? Malaysia is a civilized country and surely this kind of uncivilized thing shouldn't be allowed to happen here without our Prime Minister's knowledge.
Edelweiss just called me and told me about the teacher in Kuantan who sued her principal for damages amounting to RM228000 for denying her the right to her yearly increments by giving her very low marks. I truly sympathize with this teacher and I really salute her for her courage to seek justice. And tonight I am writing this blog article to seek justice not only for myself but also for all those teachers who are suffering in silence but dare not voice out their grievances.
Edelweiss56 is one of them. She lost more than RM10000 because her promotion was delayed for two years and if she didn't tell me about it no one would know how much she suffered. Here I would like to take the oppportunity to make her plight known to the whole world.
Edelweiss56 is a very dedicated teacher. After she was transfered to a new school, her new principal gave 85 marks the following year. In the same year she was also given the anugerah perkhidmatan cemerlang. The same teacher doing the same amount of work but how come she got low marks for one year and high marks the following year plus the anugerah perkhidmatan cemerlang? The answer is very obvious. If the principal likes her then she can get high marks for her prestasi but if the principal doesn't like her she is sure to get very low marks. Thus we can see how biased, prejudiced and unfair the principals can be when giving marks to the teachers. Can we trust them to evaluate the teachers?
Let's see what marks the principal will give me this year. I have been doing my work in the same way all these years. In fact this year I am given more work than the previous years. This year, I am the coordinator for English in the afternoon, I have to do relief timetable for those teachers who are absent, and since the temporary English teacher left on 1st June I have to take over another extra class. With the retirement of Puan M, I have yet to mark the English papers of another extra class for the coming final exam. If the marks that the principal and the PK1 give me are less than what I got last year, the reason for it is very obvious.
Principals who are themselves not much better than the teachers or may even be worse than them are given the authority to chastise the teachers they do not like. And what rights do these principals have? Teachers who know how to bodek and spy for the principals are given very high marks whilst those who only want to make an honest living are sent to the gallows. Everyone knows that it's no use working hard nowadays. One must learn to work smart and to work smart means that one has to be extremely selfish, cruel and cunning. No, this kind of shameful thing shouldn't be allowed to happen in Malaysia. Malaysia, a country where peace and justice is dear to all ... Let there be justice for all. It's time for the borang penilaian prestasi to be thrown into the garbage bin.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Afternoon Supervisor's Retirement
Yesterday was a very sad day for my school for we celebrated the retirement of our afternoon supervisor. May she always find happiness in her life.
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