NUTP urges MOE to ensure digital applications ease teachers’ burden, not add pressure

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) has urged the Ministry of Education (MoE) to ensure that the digital infrastructure under the ministry helps to ease the teachers’ tasks instead of putting more pressure on them.

The NUTP in a statement today said it hoped that the data and information division at MoE could better regulate any new applications or systems that were created at all levels of its administration.

“Make sure the digital infrastructure is really robust and capable of meeting the needs of the large number people under the ministry. Teachers no longer want to be stressed by digital applications. The use of the application should help teachers in carrying out their duties and facilitate teachers’ affairs, not the other way around, giving extreme emotional pressure to teachers,“ read the statement.

The statement also said that NUTP supported the seven measures announced on Friday by Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek in dealing with the burden and pressure of educators, describing it as a noble effort to help teachers.

“The move is also to improve the well-being of teachers and reduce stress among teachers, as well as help improve the problems of the education system in Malaysia.

The measures include the abolition of any form of competition, celebrations or ceremonies at all levels that do not have a major impact on students’ learning, as well as reducing the frequency of the Malaysian Education Quality Standard (SKPM) reviews involving teachers to once a year.

Among the other measures are to set a more flexible keying-in time for student attendance records to avoid congestion in the system and to open the appointment of public examination supervisors managed by the Examination Board (LP) and the Malaysian Examinations Council (MPM) to more categories of individuals including government retirees, students from institutes of teacher education (IPG) and institutes of higher education (IPT).

The MoE will also limit the organisation of the Annual Teacher’s Day celebration to the national and school level, in addition to setting a summary of the Daily Lesson Plan (RPH) at the ministry level to ensure that it meets the set requirements.

The seventh measure is to strengthen the autonomy of teachers in the planning and implementation of teaching and learning, as well as classroom assessments by using the Curriculum and Assessment Standards Document (DSKP) as a reference. – Bernama