Popular career?

Circle of learning

By KAREN CHAPMAN

Teaching is a popular option for school-leavers. Experienced teachers share their thoughts on why the passion for what they do is so important.

HER mother Aminah Abd Hamid was the headmistress of a village school in Temiang Muar, Johor.

But what left an impression on her daughter and now SMK Bandar Sunway special education coordinator Juairiah Johari was her determination to ensure that every child received an education.

“My mother did not want anyone to be left behind so she would help them financially.

“I remember how my late father would drive her around the villages to look for the homes of her pupils as she could not drive,” she shares.

Juairiah, who has been teaching for the last 30 years, says her mother wanted the village children to have a head start in life by ensuring they could attend school.

Before turning to remedial teaching, she says she also learnt a lot from serving under former Bukit Bintang Girls School headmistress Maheran Kuntum at the school.

“(Puan) Maheran was strict but loving and taught us to focus on our pupils as their failures were ours too,” she shares.

After obtaining further training in the Philippines, Juairiah started teaching special classes in SK SS19 in Subang Jaya before leaving to start the same classes at SMK Bandar Sunway in 1998.

“I watch and observe the commitment and sacrifices of parents with children who have special needs.

“They work with the system to not only create awareness but also to create a school programme with a focus on independent living skills,” she adds.

It is a real bonus to see what the children can do after working with them for it is more important to teach them how to fish rather than giving them a fish, she shares.

Prof Yang Farina Abdul Aziz from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia who lectures in inorganic chemistry, says she was inspired by her father.

ASARIAH: A passion for teaching and sharing the information is so important.

“My father Abdul Aziz Mohd Sultan, a Kirkby College-trained teacher, is 75 and still teaching because he is so passionate about what he does.

“It’s the circle of learning — where I am inspired by good teachers and in turn hope I’m also inspiring many young people to reach for their dreams so that the circle of learning lives on,” adds Prof Yang Farina.

It is this passion for teaching and sharing the information which is so important, says Education Deputy Director-General (General Professional Development) Datin Asariah Mior Shaharuddin.

“Students will know whether their teachers are interested or not,” she adds.

To strengthen the teaching profession, former education minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein had put new selection criteria in place to ensure that only those who are truly interested in teaching get accepted into the profession.

For SPM school-leavers who hope to enter the teaching profession, new conditions included six credits in SPM including Bahasa Malaysia, English and History, active extra-curricular involvement, a personality test and an interview.

Asariah says successful selection depends on the candidates meeting the conditions above.

Priority, she adds, will be given to candidates who were active in extra-curricular activities in school.

“From the interview, we can usually gauge a candidate’s potential. We hope to further groom the person during the training,” she says.

Candidates also need to write a statement of intent on why they want to become teachers.

Prof Yang Farina (middle) hanging out with her students.

Not second choice

Based on statistics from the ministry, teaching is not a last resort career or second choice.

In fact, shares Asariah, the ministry received 97,562 applications from SPM school-leavers with 6,030 places available.

“Many of these students obtained excellent results with some having 13As in the SPM so they could have applied for other programmes such as medicine and engineering.

“Instead they chose to take up teaching,” adds Asariah who began her own career as a geography teacher at a rural school in Perak.

According to Asariah, students can apply for places in teacher training institutes (IPG) when the ministry places advertisements in newspapers.

As an example, in its recent advertisement for its July intake this year, students who wanted to opt for the Excellent Students Programme abroad could choose from a bachelor of science degree in physics, mathematics, biology or special education subjects in clinical speech therapy, occupational health therapy, audiology and clinical psychology.

There were also French and German programmes for those interested in teaching both languages, and the Bachelor of Teaching programme (PISMP) at the country’s 27 IPG.

Those opting to join the Postgraduate Teacher Training Course (KPLI) must now have a first degree and SPM qualifications, be active in extra-curricular activities, have good communication skills and undertake a personality test.

Previously, KPLI candidates did not need to have any extra-curricular marks or sit for written language tests to become language specialists.

To receive an invitation to sit for the MTeST (teacher selection test), the candidates’ first degrees must also match the option they have applied for, Hishammuddin had said then.

For example, those who want to teach Mathematics must have a degree in that field as well as a credit in Additional Mathematics at SPM.

Shares former super principal Datuk Mary Yap, teachers are the ones who mould the future generation.

“Without teachers, there would be no doctors, lawyers, engineers or accountants,” she adds.

Knowing this and having the passion and a commitment towards continually improving students’ achievements is what makes a good teacher, shares Yap.

“Once a teacher, always a teacher at heart and if you ask me what I miss most upon my retirement, it is the students,” she adds.

Credit to the star online, Sunday, May 17 2009