Malaysian Teachers = Jack of All Trades

I am becoming sick of being a teacher in Malaysia. Teachers in Malaysia are not treated like teachers in the UK, for example. Teachers there are so much respected and being a teacher there means you have a really good professional job. But, here in Malaysia....

Let's take today newspaper headline: Cegah Murid Gemuk (Prevent students to becoming fat). In the news, it is reported like this:

Beliau berkata, turut dipersetujui pada mesyuarat itu ialah mengambil data berat dan ketinggian pelajar untuk dimuatkan dalam buku rekod masing-masing sebagai panduan kepada ibu bapa bagi memantau pertumbuhan anak-anak mereka.

“Tugas berkenaan akan dilakukan guru darjah dan segala maklumat akan dicatatkan pada setiap penggal persekolahan. Dari situ ibu bapa boleh melihat keadaan anak-anak sama ada beratnya ideal dengan ketinggian berdasarkan umur mereka. Turut dicatatkan cadangan kepada ibu bapa akan langkah-langkah yang perlu dilakukan untuk mengurangkan obesiti pelajar,” katanya.

What the heck? Why on earth they just simply decide that teachers are the 'lucky' ones to weigh and measure the kids? Why didn't they ask us, the teachers first before they make the decision? Do they think we come to school and do nothing? Well, I do remember being weighed and measured when I was in primary school 18 years ago. But, those days, I don't think teachers were burdened with so much work as nowadays. The new millennium teachers have to deal a lot of 'necessary' tasks such as buku adab belajar, kad 001, SMM, as well as dealing with millennium kids' behaviours. For goodness sake, we also have to teach than 50 pupils a day, plus all the marking chores etc etc, they still think we have time to calculate BMI. I don't even know my own BMI, because I don't even know the formula to get BMI.

Giving the kids' BMI data to their parents won't solve the obesity problem if the parents do not even care about it. What if the parents don't even know what the numbers really mean? Then, we, teachers, after being a mathematician, we have to be dieticians and explain to those ignorant parents.

I am so pissed off at those Datuks and ministers and Drs. for making such a lame decision. They may have the titles before their names, but they have proved to us that they don't have good brains. People have eaten their first food at home, not at school. Thus, home is the right place to start cultivating young children the healthy eating habit, not at school. Those hands that feed the child should teach the child what to feed himself.