Teaching is a challenging profession

SHAH ALAM - The intensifying workload that teachers have to bear which also interfered with their teaching responsibilities, was among the factors they opted for early retirement.

National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) president Aminuddin Awang said the need to fulfil various tasks including clerical and administration works had caused teachers to lose the fun in teaching.

He said educators also faced difficulties in meeting the requirements of new policies which would change each time the leadership in the education sector changes.

“The role of a teacher is to educate the young generation, but today teachers were burdened with administrative work and data management.

"The situation is causing teachers to lose focus on their teaching responsibilities in the classroom and because of that, the joy they once feel when they teach, is gone,” he told Sinar Harian on Tuesday.

On Monday, Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin revealed that the compulsory retirement rate of teachers was more or less the same as early retired teachers.

Following the situation, Mohd Radzi said the ministry is looking into the details on what had caused these teachers to opt for early retirement, in its bid to overcome the issue.

Commenting further, Aminuddin said the other factor that contributed to such a trend was because focus was given more on the management strategies for excellence of the schools rather than the students' direction which had caused unnecessary stress to the teachers.

“This has caused the profession to become boring as they (teachers) need to follow the instructions of their superiors rather than focusing on the students who are always hungry for knowledge,” he said.

Therefore, Aminuddin said he hoped that the ministry could try to find ways to reduce the administrative tasks that the teachers had to bear.

He also suggested for an assistant teacher post to be created so that they could do the clerical work, adding that the target setting or key performance indicators (KPI) should use the bottom-up concept starting from the school.

"The problem in every school in our country is not the same, there are schools in coastal areas, rural areas, urban areas and in elite cities.

"Of course, if the same target is set for all schools, teachers from the schools with majority underprivileged students will be under pressure," he said.

He added that the average age of those opting for early retirement was between 56 to 58 years old, based on the NUTP retirement welfare fund claims statistics.

Aminuddin said the trend of early retirement involving teachers of the age group were likely contributed by the implementation of the new pension payment rules under the Pensions Act 1991.

“Teachers rarely retire earlier than 55 years old as any civil servant who was appointed on April 12, 1991 and afterwards will only be paid pension upon reaching the age of 55, "he said.

In February, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said all teachers in the state were advised to not opt for early retirement due to stress during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, in November, last year, Simpang Renggam MP and former Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik, raised a similar issue in Parliament.

Maszlee said the reason why teachers wanted to retire early was because of the burnout and intensifying workload.