The situation is serious enough to start sending all teachers and headmasters for psychometric assessment now and not wait for the new intake next year.
COMMENT
The Education Ministry has said it will improve the mental health screening procedures for new teachers from next year but more importantly it has to be done for the current batch now in view of cases of teachers displaying violent behaviour.
Recently, senseless beating of pupils has been on the increase and one wonders the mental state the teachers are in.
Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan has said new teachers from the Institutes of Teacher Education would undergo psychometric assessment.
He had said the assessment, scheduled to be implemented next year, was necessary as part of the measures to address issues of teachers with mental health problems.
Psychometric assessment had been practised in developed nations like the United States and Britain and we are only going to start next year.
What about the present batch of teachers and headmasters who are out of sync with the current problems and situations.
Most of them do not have a clue how to handle difficult situations they face in schools.
The ministry must start a programme soon to send teachers and headmasters for counselling courses which should include psychometric assessment.
These days both parents have to work to make ends meet and children are left under the care of maids or on their own. With little or no parental guidance the children are left to their own devices.
Children look up to anybody who will care and protect and gangs target these students and groom them to be members.
So teachers will have a tough time disciplining these children.
About 50 years ago when a student was punished by a teacher, telling the parents will be worse as they are likely to receive more beating.
Those days parents also think the teachers were right and their children deserved the punishment.
Teachers were held in high regard by society and respected. Of course most teachers then were trained in Kirkby, Britain.
Mental stress
In a fast changing environment where the world is borderless and all information are readily available, students are also becoming more intelligent and teachers should not be left behind.
One only have to look at the Facebook to know the embarrassing state the teachers are in now.
Teachers are being embarrassed because the students know more than them and this leads to frustration and later manifest as violent bahaviour among teachers.
Parents have pulled out their children from government schools and enrolled them in private institutions because students know more than the teachers.
Teachers are also under a lot of pressure because of workload and this can contribute to their mental stress.
The psychometric assessment should include stress management and modern techniques in dealing with student behaviour.
Teachers have to constantly update themselves with the latest information so as not be be left behind.
Gangsterism, drugs and truancy, were unheard of before or were rare, therefore the education system must be prepared to deal with these issues.
The system must be constantly evolving otherwise the education blueprint will not be realised.
Rama Segar is a FMT team member.
COMMENT
The Education Ministry has said it will improve the mental health screening procedures for new teachers from next year but more importantly it has to be done for the current batch now in view of cases of teachers displaying violent behaviour.Recently, senseless beating of pupils has been on the increase and one wonders the mental state the teachers are in.
Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan has said new teachers from the Institutes of Teacher Education would undergo psychometric assessment.
He had said the assessment, scheduled to be implemented next year, was necessary as part of the measures to address issues of teachers with mental health problems.
Psychometric assessment had been practised in developed nations like the United States and Britain and we are only going to start next year.
What about the present batch of teachers and headmasters who are out of sync with the current problems and situations.
Most of them do not have a clue how to handle difficult situations they face in schools.
The ministry must start a programme soon to send teachers and headmasters for counselling courses which should include psychometric assessment.
These days both parents have to work to make ends meet and children are left under the care of maids or on their own. With little or no parental guidance the children are left to their own devices.
Children look up to anybody who will care and protect and gangs target these students and groom them to be members.
So teachers will have a tough time disciplining these children.
About 50 years ago when a student was punished by a teacher, telling the parents will be worse as they are likely to receive more beating.
Those days parents also think the teachers were right and their children deserved the punishment.
Teachers were held in high regard by society and respected. Of course most teachers then were trained in Kirkby, Britain.
Mental stress
In a fast changing environment where the world is borderless and all information are readily available, students are also becoming more intelligent and teachers should not be left behind.
One only have to look at the Facebook to know the embarrassing state the teachers are in now.
Teachers are being embarrassed because the students know more than them and this leads to frustration and later manifest as violent bahaviour among teachers.
Parents have pulled out their children from government schools and enrolled them in private institutions because students know more than the teachers.
Teachers are also under a lot of pressure because of workload and this can contribute to their mental stress.
The psychometric assessment should include stress management and modern techniques in dealing with student behaviour.
Teachers have to constantly update themselves with the latest information so as not be be left behind.
Gangsterism, drugs and truancy, were unheard of before or were rare, therefore the education system must be prepared to deal with these issues.
The system must be constantly evolving otherwise the education blueprint will not be realised.
Rama Segar is a FMT team member.
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