SERDANG: It’s official! The perennial complaint among teachers has always been too much paperwork and not enough time to focus on teaching.

The Education Ministry has finally heard them and its minister Dr Maszlee Malik announced the good news that from this year onwards, teachers will no longer have to prepare and file multiple copies of documents such as classroom attendance and subject committee records.

“We have identified the causes of clerical tasks, which are no longer relevant and must be abolished, that interfere with the primary task of teachers,” he said during his annual new year address yesterday.

He said five initiatives consisting of nine interventions will be carried out from this month onwards.

The first initiative will see filing and documentation processes being simplified.

They are for the Textbook Loan Scheme (SPBT), subject committee files and classroom-based assessment reports.

“Two interventions will be carried out for data and online system management,” said Dr Maszlee.

He said one is the collection and management of school, teacher and student data that shall now be taken from ministry-approved data sources.

The other is that student attendance will also be recorded online fully except for schools with no Internet connection, which are allowed to do so manually, he added.

In line with the abolition of mid-year and year-end exams for Level One pupils, Dr Maszlee said schools will have the autonomy to conduct their own literacy and numeracy assessments for these pupils.

“Schools should identify Level One pupils who face difficulty grasping reading, writing and counting skills and prepare appropriate intervention methods,” he said.

“For the standardisation of forms and monitoring processes, two interventions will be done to ensure teachers are no longer filling in forms for cleanliness, safety and canteen ratings,” he said.

“The fifth initiative is the coordination of school-level committees, the interventions implemented will ensure that various committees unrelated to teaching work will be abolished,” he said.

Dr Maszlee said the five initiatives are the first step to improving teaching quality, whereas the second step will involve more training and courses for teachers to ensure they are equipped with the best teaching practices.

“Speaking about teacher training, I would like to inform that the ministry is conducting special research to review the teacher training system at Teacher Education Institutes (IPG),” he said.

“The change of mentality, culture, and practice is the essence of the changes we are trying to do to improve the quality of teaching and teaching graduates,” he said.

“Teaching is a noble and meaningful career and it shouldn’t be something that is painful and burdensome,” he said.

Dr Maszlee teared up as he spoke about how his former teacher Ustaz Sakijan Muri helped him shape his dream to instil change for the betterment of the coun-try.

“To all who are present today, do not be afraid to build dreams, together we will work to make the brightest future for the nation’s children,” he said.