Oxymoron In The Tropics

Oh, great great great news! 40,000 Civil Servants Given Option Of Pension Scheme November 27, 2008 18:17 PM PUTRAJAYA, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- About 40,000 more civil servants will be in the pension scheme following the government's decision to grant back that option to all those who had earlier chosen the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) scheme. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the move was to enable these civil servants to enjoy the medical and other retirement benefits provided by the government. "All this will be good for them in the long run," he said after presenting the Public Sector Quality Awards to the recipients at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, here, Thursday. When I was a young teacher (very wet behind the ears!) attending an induction course years ago, one of the course presenters told us about the EPF and pension options. But the gist of his presentation was that EPF was the better option of the two. This, plus the fa...

First, a little background info for my friends not in the service. In December 2007, we attended a briefing where we were asked to nominate teachers for DG44, DG48 and DG52 posts as Form Six teachers in school. As my school had four Form Six classes, we had one DG52 post, three DG48 and five DG44 form six academic teachers posts. These teachers were not going to do any admin. We also had one DG44 Form Six Senior Assistant post and one DG44 Form Six Cocurriculum Coordinator. This was a great thing for teachers in school...at last they had another avenue for promotions, other than going into administration (as a principal, senior assistant or dept heads) or becoming GCs (master teachers). Of course they had to teach Form Six students, which isn't exactly a walk in the park. However, the people in the briefing room weren't exactly happy. And I knew why. Blow Number One was that the senior assistants in school (myself included) were to remain in the DG44 grade. I could fores...

Well, actually, it was an offer to attend an interview :) Two days ago, I went to the office and was told by a colleague that I had an offer letter from IAB to attend an interview for a post in Genting Highlands. She was very amused because she had received one as well (along with three other teachers in my school) and not one of us applied for the posts offered. (The posts were the usual DG44, DG48, DG52 pemangkuan...) Some would think..wow, a great opportunity! But I think not. First, I've already applied for a DG48 post as a Form Six Academic Teacher (more on this in the next post). The possiblity of my getting it is pretty good (fingers crossed!). Second, should I be successful in this IAB interview, I would have to move from comfortable familiar KK (and also home!) to the wild woolly highlands to work. I'd have to look for a place to stay, a new school for my son, my husband would have to re-establish himself all over again work-wise (he is not a civil servant easily t...

Today is the first real day of the year-end holiday! Yesterday didn't count cos I was at work till 4 p.m., sitting in a data meeting at the KK District Education Office. I didn't really mind that much as the officers in charge of the meeting were funny and cheerful. As usual. Well, they have to be as they were asking the schools to fill up a database. Usually a finicky messy crazy job. I didn't have to do it as my data officer was there. My job was to carry the school chops, school letterheads and responsibility to approve. Now what shall I do today? I plan to start off with a good hearty breakfast. Keeping in mind my latest resolution to try and make my blood as alkaline as possible. Next I may go to Karamunsing Complex to see what the Laptop Fair has to offer. Not that I want to buy a laptop. My Inspiron 700m is still serving me well. Then I may check my ebook folders. I've been downloading so many ebooks that I probably have a few hundred that I haven't ...

Actually, the topic should be 'Burnout, baby, burnout...' Burnout is every teacher's problem. Our work requires us to feel for our 'clients' (i.e. students) and in the process, treat them like our own children. The thing is, the emo can only be spread around so far... January launches us straight into sports activities (nothing can bond teachers and students together like sweating out on the fields...) and before we can even take a breath, it's already March and that means TESTS! For the teacher, this means cranking out 'quality' test papers, watching the kids take it and then marking them. Then it's analysis time, headcounts, item analyses etc etc ad nauseam. Overlapping the tests will be other cocurricular activities like debates, spelling bees, quizzes, choir competitions ...more ad nauseam. And guess who will plan organise referee these activities? Teachers la... I've run from debates in the morning to dramas in the afternoon and when ...

Doing admin at my place of work has made me realise how important people and their relationships with each other are in making sure the organisation functions well. I also see that there is no such thing as black and white, as in Mrs A is wrong and Mr B is right. Usually the conflict will have its roots in something else and most often, it's a 'minor' thing. But like a burr under a saddle or the pea in the princess' bed (remember the fairytale?), the 'minor' thing festers and festers and in the end, something blows up. So as an administrator, to ignore 'minor' things and to discount people's opinions and WORSE..to take sides, would be the beginning of major troubles in the organisation. For example, one of my friends' troubles began when she asked a very very simple question: Are you divorced? But the one who was asked that question took such violent offense that ever since that 'minor' question, she took every opportunity to undermin...