Perennial problem: Increased administrative and non-teaching duties are among the issues faced by teachers for years. - 123rf.com
SOME of you may be familiar with the story of Rip Van Winkle written by Washington Irving.
Based on a German folk tale, it tells the story of Van Winkle, a farmer who wanders off into the mountainside and meets a group of dwarfs.
After a game of ninepins with them, he accepts their offer of a drink and soon falls into a deep sleep that lasts 20 years.
When he awakens, he finds that everything around him has changed. He himself is now an old man with a long white beard.
I wonder if any teachers and educators have been feeling this way since early 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic descended upon us like a cloud that engulfed everything within visibility.
Even though more than a couple of years have passed since then and the shift towards digital education is on a relatively firmer footing than before, I believe a number of teachers at all levels are experiencing Van Winkle’s awakening.
It is a stage where you feel like you have been rudely awakened to find that so much has happened, and you wonder if you will ever be able to catch up with the extensive and mostly digital changes in the education setting.
To many senior teachers or those who have been in the service for many years, the more important questions that hover in their minds would perhaps be: “Do I have what it takes to adapt to the changes in the teaching and learning modalities, platforms and assessment methods?”
“Seeing that I don’t have that many years left before I retire, is adapting to the changes worth it?”
These may also be among the main reasons why many senior teachers opt for early retirement.
Much has been said about teachers’ disgruntlements with the increased administrative and non-teaching duties which take the focus away from their core business of teaching.
Apart from the amount of work related to documentation and directives from education authorities that are not clear, policies that keep changing and incompetent leadership in some education arenas are some of the other reasons that have led to disillusionment among teachers.
But none of these reasons are really new. They have been tossed about in casual chats and on more serious education platforms for the past decades.
Teachers who have had more than 20 years of experience in the service will be quick to affirm that many of these reasons have been there all along.
Did we have piles of files and documents to complete 20 years ago? Yes, we did.
Did we have directives some 20 years ago that were not clear and whose benefit to our education system we doubted? Yes, we did.
Did we have leaders in our education circles who were self-serving and incompetent? Yes, we did.
Do we still have all these things? Yes, we definitely do.
Most teachers reluctantly or otherwise have come to terms with the fact that teaching modes and modalities have changed and that new skills are needed for the reimagining of education in a hybrid space with the ongoing emphasis on student-centred pedagogy.
Since the introduction of computers in our Malaysian schools in the 1980s, teachers have – in varying degrees, based on personal convictions and motivations – adapted to new ways of teaching and learning, and assessment.
Perhaps it is not so much the change in the education landscape and the transformations that are needed to equip our students for the industry of the future that are the leading factors of teachers wanting to leave the service early.
Perhaps another significant factor is the knowledge that despite all the reports about wonderful academic achievements at all levels, there is the uneasy feeling among teachers that standards have slipped, that not all As scored by students in major examinations are real As.
In fact, the question that hovers in the air is what really qualifies as an A-grade performance? This carries over into higher education institutions where academics are also aware that not all first class honours degrees are equal.
We are told that apart from their academic qualifications, our graduates need to be agile, to be able to adapt to the demands of their workplace and to be able to multitask if necessary.
We collectively churn out huge numbers of graduates and postgraduates with impressive sounding bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees but a quick look at the quality, language and thinking process reflected on published academic papers may be able to give an idea of the quality of graduates we produce.
And we have not even talked about those who have outsourced their theses and major assignments to third parties who are willing to think and write for them for a fee.
But moving back to the topic of why teachers choose to retire early, it may not just be disillusionment with the system.
It could very much be the feeling of wanting to do something else while they still could.
It could also be the feeling or even the knowledge that opportunities for promotion may be close to nil for some of them.
Or it could just be the longing to finally have the chance to grow those roses they have always wanted to, take up ballroom dancing, go on cruises or just sit back and enjoy the days without worrying about papers to grade, forms to fill, reports to write and lessons to prepare.
And even if teachers who have chosen to retire feel that it is not worth their while to complete their remaining years in the service, it does not detract from all the contributions they have made.
We have countless testimonies of students who have graduated and gone on to give back to society in many impactful ways.
We have stories of teachers who continue to be committed and dedicated to their service. Beyond everything else, they believe in their role in educating young minds.
And it is my firm belief that when that conviction and passion are in place, teachers at whatever level, from preschool right up to higher education, whether they are still in service or have retired, will continue to fulfil a significant purpose in society.
Dr G. Mallika Vasugi, who currently teaches at a local university, provides insights into the teaching profession. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Star.
