WORKLOAD

I’m sure the issue of overburdened teachers have been discussed for such a long time. Promises were given (placing teachers’ assistants at school or ‘lessening’ teachers’ workload by implementing a formative evaluation instead of summative evaluation) but the truth remains like a black dot on a whiteboard. It’s there but everyone oversees it. But for those who use the whiteboard every other day, the black dot stick out like a sore thumb.

First, it’s the core business of teachers called teaching. Remember that? I bet those who signed up for this teaching thing had this aspiration to teach using various techniques; creatively and innovatively. But tell me, how can we when the students are worse than spawns of Satan? Where 13 year olds SMS each other using names like ‘umi’ and ‘papa’ and talked about stuff on the bed that would make pornographic actors cringe? Where they call their teachers assholes and scratch and puncture their teachers’ tyres? At least, other professions offer insurance for occupational hazards. Teachers? May God have mercy on your souls.

Second, y’all know about how everything is online these days to make students’ management a breeze. It should be, it would be, if teachers didn’t have to key in the same details only a gazillion times. And what the issue was brought forward, guess who were the black sheeps? We were accused of being incompetent and expert procrastinators while the reality was, the system was not ready and no direct orders were given to teachers who were waiting for directions from upstairs.

On a side note, of course there are teachers who really procrastinate things and even worse, some who paid others (usually students) to do their job online. The laptops are like devil’s horn and the online apps are devil’s eyes that would jump out of the screen and engulf them in hellfire if they got close to it. Not just that, when it comes to online test like CPT and the newest one on ICT, when the screen says that the test should be done honestly (alone with only your brain to help you), how many do you think follow the stationary screen? Don’t get me wrong, some teachers (including moi) studied notes for the test, while others took the easy way out by sharing answer scheme of the online test. And I wonder how do you expect your students to be decent human beings?

Third, the teachers are always at the receiving end of every single thing. Your kid sucks at Math? The teacher must be a douche. Your kid watched pornography on his iPhone that you bought? The discipline teacher must be a pussy. Your kid ran away with a guy he knew for 2 days on Facebook? The class teacher must be blind to see your kid’s thunderous rollercoaster emotions in the class. Your kid didn’t finish her homework and the teacher punished her? The teacher must be a sadist.

And of course, giant companies would turn to teachers to promote their stuff and in return, teachers need to do something in return. As if teachers have nothing better to do except for keying in more students’ data online and organizing a large scale workshop in October when PMR and SPM is around the corner, not to mention year end exam.

And don’t get me started on the amount of money and stuff that I sacrifice in the name of the profession. When you have to print out 100 pages of kindergarten’s handouts because your form four kids have the mental capacity and language ability of a five year old. And when your printer broke down, you had to service it and it cost more than buying a new printer, not to mention buying stacks of A4 papers and continuous supply of ink. And don’t get me started on stationeries which the book stores rake in a fortune every time a teacher goes there for a weekly visit. And since I’m currently taking my second degree, when I got my RM 200 book voucher, I spent it on stationeries and dictionaries for my students.

Which brings us to the fourth point. Teachers spend more time at school than home. Meetings that lasted until 6 in the afternoon. Friday’s and Saturday’s extra activities. Moreover, if your school were involved in some sorts of national level competition, prepare yourselves for being the school’s ghost, haunting the school night and day, leaving you kids and spouse at home as your job demands more. If you’re single, everyone assumes you have no life and not a single shred of responsibility and that makes you a possible candidate to receive all jobs.

With all of these ramblings being said, do I regret being a teacher? Before this, I would say no. But right now, seeing a colleague or two resigned due to unlimited of stress, secretly I applauded them for their resoluteness and wishing I have the brevity to follow their footsteps.