Recently, three Sabahan Students successfully sued their former secondary school English language teacher for failing to attend classes for almost a year. The students had filed their suit in December 2020 and the trial began last September. With this success, the students hoped that in the future, all parties will take teaching more seriously and more students will be courageous to voice out and be aware of their rights as students.
I begin to wonder, “What caused these students to take action against their teacher?” The news report ended with one of the students’ comment that she was relieved after having gone through the six-year ordeal and stress which caused them to fail their English exam. It is indeed a sad thing to hear of students going through such an ordeal and receiving an ‘F’ in their English exam.
What causes one to be absent when one should be present? It can be an absent parent, an absent teacher or employee or an absent pupil. A parent may be constantly absent in a child’s life due to their work commitments. An employee may be absent because he thinks he can get away without being caught. A student who is absent may be playing truant because he or she may not see the importance of education. Can I also conclude that many of our parliamentarians are absent because they think they can get away with it or that they do not see the importance of being present to discuss or debate on issues of national importance?
We are living in borderless world today. At the click of a button we can ‘travel’ the world and see places. We can get lots of information through the internet and are more knowledgeable now. Our actions can be seen by unsuspected beings. Our words can be ‘heard’ when we are trying hard to speak softly so that our words are not heard by unwanted ears. So, choosing to be absent when we should be present may be a bad, bad choice.
I hope our educators at all levels will take their responsibility seriously. Teachers should be role models and a source of inspiration for their students. However, I have heard of various complaints from students and parents alike about the teachers’ lack of ability to teach the subjects which they were entrusted with, some teachers who were ‘sleeping’ in class or some who were frequently late for their classes. Of course there are many who are poor role models to our young people.
In short, always do the right thing. Honour the trust that is given to you with pride. Then we can build a better Malaysia for all.
By Mei Wong
Mei Wong is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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