ALLOCATIONS for digital programmes in schools, tackling the shortage of teachers nationwide and expediting the repairs of dilapidated schools are on the wish list of teachers’ unions in Budget 2024.

West Malaysia Teachers’ Union president Jasni Md Kechik and National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general Fauzi Singon said they would also like to see the funds used to purchase enough laptops and smart boards in schools, as well as better internet connection.

Without such facilities, they said the digitalisation programme will not materialise.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced in July an additional allocation of RM1.4 billion for the repair of dilapidated schools in the country.

He said the allotment included RM185.37 million for Kelantan, Terengganu (RM78.93 million) and Pahang (RM64.15 million).

For Budget 2023, Putrajaya set aside RM55.2 billion for the Education Ministry (MOE) and RM15.3 billion for the Higher Education Ministry (MOHE).

The funding, an increase from RM52.6 billion in 2022 for the MOE and RM14.5 billion for the MOHE over the same period, were to improve the standard of national education and preserve the welfare and well-being of educators and students up to varsity level.

“The prime minister spoke on the importance of digitalisation, so there must be enough funds to purchase laptops, smart boards and internet connectivity to realise that.

“If not, it would be difficult for teachers, schools or even the ministry to meet the target,” Jasni said.

“Secondly the government must fix and build new buildings. This is to prevent overcrowding in classrooms. In some schools, there are about 35 to 40 students in a class.

“If we can have new classrooms, we can offer a much better learning atmosphere for our students.

“It will also be more comfortable for teachers to teach with fewer pupils,” he added.

Jasni also touched on the heavy workload faced by teachers in the majority of schools, saying there should be a plan to ease their burden.

He also suggested giving an allowance to teachers with extra workload. For example, a disciplinary teacher will receive an extra RM50 per month, a teacher who is also co-curricular secretary at the school will receive RM30 extra at the end of the month.

“A class teacher who also has to teach other subjects should get RM50 for extra work. I think this can be done because the allowance is not that much. This special allowance is only for teachers with extra workload.

“It is more of a targeted scheme rather than a full allowance for all teachers. At the moment many teachers have no time to even have breaks in schools. Other than teaching, they have other tasks to complete,” he said.

Anwar had recently said the MOE will be among those to receive the biggest allocations in Budget 2024, which will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on October 13.

Address teacher shortage

Fauzi on the other hand said the government should address the shortage of school teachers as a way to reduce the burden of existing educators.

“At the moment, the number of school teachers is not enough and that is one of the reasons why many are burdened with so much work.

“Many have yet to get their replacement leave because there’s not enough teachers to cover for them.

“If one goes on leave the other has to cover for them. The workload keeps piling up,” Fauzi said.

He said the issue of dilapidated schools must quickly be addressed.

As for digitalisation, Fauzi said the government must upgrade the infrastructure in schools to meet the criteria.

“The facilities and infrastructure must be upgraded. At the moment, one server connects to several schools in several zones. Have one server for each zone so that the accessibility is faster and smoother,” he added.

Improve teaching and learning facilities

For Dr Anuar Ahmad of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the government needs to focus specifically on improving teaching and learning facilities, as well as infrastructure in schools, to ensure that the digitalisation agenda in the national education system can be fully achieved next year.

He said for that purpose, the government must provide special allocations in Budget 2024 to drive the digitalisation of education.

“To drive the education digitalisation agenda, every school needs to have good internet access not only in urban areas but also in rural areas, to ensure a more effective teaching and learning process.

“In addition, for teaching and learning sessions, the provision of suitable devices should also be given priority, aside from the expansion of the device assistance scheme, to ensure that more students from poor families benefit from this,” said Anuar, who is the secretary of the Education and Human Capital Development Cluster of the National Council of Professors.

The senior lecturer said teachers also needed to be equipped with pedagogical skills based on information technology.

“For that purpose, the government also has to provide special allocations for training programmes to improve teachers’ pedagogical skills.

“In addition, funding to provide more digital content also needs to be allocated,” Anuar added. – October 4, 2023.