I remember Allahyarhamah (the late) Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, a Malaysian physician as the wife of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth & seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia once said at the luncheon talk organized by Kelab Asian Institute of Management (AIM) that “If we want to build an economy that works for everyone, we need to put our families first. That means matching our policies to how families actually live in the twenty-first century. To do that, we need to make sure every child in Malaysia is able to live up to his or her God-given potential. We can be a better, stronger, more prosperous country when we harness the talent, hard work, and ingenuity of every single child. We don't have a person to waste. Parents across the country desperately want to give their kids a good life & education. They need help to deal with various pressures. Every child in this country deserves a good teacher, in a good school, regardless of the postcode that child lives in.”
I totally agree with Tun Siti Hasmah that Malaysia is asking more of our educators than ever before. We look to them to fill in gaps that we as a country, like helping low-income kids, slow English-language learners, kids with disabilities thrive. We ask them to help right wrongs - from poverty to the legacy of racial inequities stretching back centuries. We ask so much of our teachers - and we don't give them enough in return. We need to elevate the profession of teaching, and ensure that all educators at every stage of their careers will be able to keep learning, improving, innovating, and earning a living wage - not taking second or third jobs just to make ends meet. We want to educate our children for the future, not the past, because we need our children to be creators, innovators, entrepreneurs - critical thinkers who can collaborate, communicate within their communities & around the world. That means we need to be reaching for new heights, not rehashing old arguments. .
Zulkifly Baharom (hajizul50@gmail.com) 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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