Win-win Situation for the Education Ministry?

I am quite puzzled that the Education Department has issued no circular to the various schools on the teacher transfer problem. Are we still using carrier pigeons in the age of multi-media and the Internet? Don’t forget that bird flu could have killed some of those carrier pigeons too.

Looking at the various options provided by the ministry, it is not surprising that the graduate teachers are unable to choose.

1. Report for duty in Johor and apply for a transfer back to their home State at the end of the year;

2. Inform the Education Ministry of any vacancies or retirement of English and Tamil teachers in their home State so that priority would be given to them to return there;

3. Take six months unpaid leave and and wait until the next school session to see if there are vacancies in their home State.

Option 1 is really a family break-up for those with children. I would not advise this for young families as the stress on the family would be tremendous.

Option 2 suggests that the MoE does not know the information of schools requirements and vacancies for the next six months. It throws a bad light on the mandarins in the department.

Option 3 offers no salary for six months and still makes life uncertain.

It seems that instead of encouraging more teachers to upgrade their skills with a well-thought out scheme, the MoE is really discouraging dedicated teachers.

I suggest the following for this group of teachers:

Option 4. Teachers will be given the option to retire early with gratuity paid for each year of service.

Option 5. Teachers will be guaranteed a placement in their old schools next year provided they have already served in hardship locations.

It was reported that there is a surplus of teachers in Selangor and a shortage in Johor. Perhaps we should ask the department officials why some of those surplus teachers were not transferred out before these graduate teachers?

photo: British Columbia on a cloudy day. Quite depressing like the teachers' problem.