Teachers in Malaysia were never trained to teach online, says National Union of the Teaching Profession secretary-general Harry Tan.
With the uncertainty of when the Movement Control Order will end, digital training for teachers is crucial to ensure the success of learning online.
“Teaching in 2D versus 3D is a different ball game. Digital training is one aspect that teachers lack and whatever digital competency they have is almost all self-taught,” said Tan.
“Formal digital training ought to be introduced over a period of time to ensure teachers acquire the skills. It should not be a one or two-day, thing.”
He said teachers were unprepared as it was mid-semester holidays when the first Movement Control Order kicked in last March. When school re-opened later, they had to teach while maintaining physical distancing. Tan said this was also foreign to them.
“Teachers need to also learn Physical Distancing Pedagogy to improve their teaching, but no university has that,” he said.
Tan highlighted teachers had to also use their own money to buy gadgets and data plans to carry out their classes last year.
“While the actions of the teachers are commendable, they need more support, including incentives to buy tax-free gadgets or subsidised data plans,” he added.
The Education Ministry, according to Tan, is also trying its best to ensure home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) in Malaysia is in line with international standards.
“The hours drawn up for (online lessons) are based on the recommendation by the American Academy of Paediatrics and even the curriculum has been aligned to ensure home-based learning is more effective and teachers can concentrate on the parts of syllabus they find more important,” he said.
According to the ministry’s PdPR guideline manual to teachers, the daily screen time guide for pre-schoolers is one hour, primary (one to two hours), lower secondary (two to three hours) and upper secondary (three to four hours).
However, the guideline adds that teachers can discuss with parents on the duration of screen time that should be fixed for students.
Teachers had also come under fire over the online classes following dissatisfaction by some parents and children.
Regarding the morale of teachers, Tan said: “Teachers find solace in their dedication to teach. Life is disrupted but they still get to interact with their students and also have discussion groups among their peers and this is helpful to lift their spirits.”
Tan also welcomed a suggestion by retired teacher A. Velurajan that former teachers carry out remedial classes once the MCO is lifted to ensure Year 1 and Year 2 pupils are truly ready for school.
“Education is life-long and a human right. But the important thing is to move forward and ensure that education does not come to a standstill,” he said.