Teachers Urged Not to Only Pursue Academic Excellence

MIRI: Teachers should not pursue academic excellence to the neglect of their responsibility to instil good discipline and positive values in their students.

Sarawak Education director Abdillah Adam said having a good name and academic excellence alone were meaningless if the students did not have good discipline, were not well-mannered and had no respect for others.

He added that the implementation of the ‘Caring Teachers’ practice is aimed at urging teachers to promote a caring attitude among students in schools.

“Our objective is not only to produce an intellectual community but produce a generation balanced in academics, personality and attitude in line with our national education philosophy,” he said when officiating at the Education Department Excellence Service Awards for Miri and Subis in the civic centre here Friday.

Abdillah said the effort to produce competent students with good personalities, academic success and skills was a big challenge for teachers as they prepared the students for the national development transformation.

He added that the introduction of Education National Key Result Areas (NKRA) was part of the transformation process in the national education system to boost the country’s educational excellence.

The implementation of four sub-section of the Education NKRA by Sarawak Education Department are extending and improving pre-school education, increasing literacy and numeracy, setting up prestigious schools and new incentives for outstanding principals, headmasters and school staff.

Touching on the ‘Gerakan Menjulangi Sarawak’ or GEMS by the Education Department, Abdillah said it was aimed at uplifting the academic standards in Sarawak in public examinations so the state did not remain second last in education compared to other states in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, a total of 369 staff of Miri Education Department and teachers from 19 secondary schools and 88 primary schools received their awards for excellent service during the ceremony yesterday.

Also present were Miri education officer Rosnani Yunus and Subis District education officer Kasiah Jafarali.

Source: The Borneo Post