KUALA LUMPUR: Teachers have expressed unhappiness over a seven-day compulsory in-service training programme, which they said would burden them.

National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) president Lok Yim Pheng said the requirement was due to a misinterpretation of Education Ministry guidelines by headmasters and principals.

"We don't know what training can be regarded as in-service training. Although teachers have been attending various training programmes outside their schools on weekdays or weekends, they are not considered in-service training," she said yesterday.

Lok said most headmasters and principals only regarded training held in the school on Saturdays as in-service training.

Under the requirement, teachers must attend at least seven days or 42 hours of in-service training a year to upgrade themselves.
Lok said teachers were not against the programme but wanted the ministry to come up with clearer guidelines on the implementation of the training so that it would not burden them.

She said although the programme had been introduced three years ago, it was only the beginning of this year that teachers were given report cards for them to put in the training details.

"This is like a mandatory programme for teachers. Many teachers have told me that they only focused on the quantity of the training to complete the 42 hours requirement but not so much on the quality."

Lok said teachers also wanted to be treated like other government servants who worked only five days a week. However, with the requirement, they would need to go to school on Saturdays.

Deputy director-general of education in the Schools Department Datuk Noor Rezan Bapoo Hashim said headmasters and principals needed to strategise on how and when to conduct the training without burdening the teachers.

"I want them to adhere to the ministry's circular, which stated that activities should be conducted not more than twice a month."

Noor Rezan also clarified that in-service training need not necessarily be in the form of formal training.

"For example, a counselling session between a teacher and the principal or a meeting on class management by the headmaster can also be recorded as in-service training, so long as it is related to the teachers' professional development ,"she said.