Education ministry mulls hiring assistants to trim teachers' workload

The education ministry is studying the need to hire teaching assistants to reduce the workload of teachers, the Dewan Negara was told today.

Deputy minister Lim Hui Ying said the ministry had also implemented seven measures to ensure that the issue of teachers' workloads can be addressed immediately, from the 2023-2024 academic session.

She said the seven measures include discontinuing any form of competition, celebration or ceremony with no major impact on student learning at all levels, as well as reducing the review frequency of school management elements of the Malaysian Education Quality Standard involving teachers to only once a year.

"Also, a more flexible lock-in time for student attendance records which is 12 noon for morning sessions and 5pm for afternoon sessions, and the appointment of public examination invigilators is now open to those other than serving teachers, such as government retirees, students from the Institute of Teacher Education or institutions of higher learning.

"Another step is limiting the organisation of the annual Teacher's Day to the national and school level only. In addition, the autonomy of teachers in planning the implementation of teaching and learning as well as classroom assessment has been strengthened by using the standard curriculum and assessment document as a reference," she said.

She was responding to Arman Azha Abu Hanifah about the ministry’s measures to resolve the problem of teacher workload leading to the early retirement of educators, during the oral question-and-answer session.

Lim also said that early retirement would reduce the number of experienced teachers, but could not be prevented as it was the right of every teacher.

"We cannot force them to continue serving, but the education ministry will try its best to encourage teachers to continue teaching until their mandatory retirement at the age of 60," she said.