Fishing where the fishes are
What is stopping Christians from taking up the teaching profession in government schools? Or Christian parents from encouraging their children to become school teachers? The heavy workload? The not-so-glamorous job? The salary? Most probably it's the last one – salary, or the lack of it. But surprise, surprise. A government schoolteacher actually earns a pretty decent income. In fact, better than a lot of other professions.
Teaching is now a profession of top choice, according to Indy Kannaya, the national coordinator of the Teachers' Christian Fellowship.
At a recent youth forum, she revealed why thousands of people - including lawyers, accountants and engineers - apply to be teachers each year and thousands are rejected. For example, this year, out of the 80,000 people who applied for the Bachelor in Education programme for the training of primary and secondary teachers, only 6,000 were accepted.
The five-and-a-half year programme is for trainees who come after their Form 5 or 6. Meanwhile, for the one-year post-graduate teachers' training course for degree holders, there were 100,000 applicants. The intake was only 5,000!
Some 200 participants representing over 50 organisations from 11 states attended the September forum, which was organised by NECF Malaysia, Scripture Union, Malayan Christian Schools' Council and TCF to enhance the ministry to school students.
Urging parents to release their children into the teaching profession, she assured them that they won't die of starvation! "Many people think that teachers are so poorly paid and so badly treated. True, they may not be in the category of Bill Gates and Donald Trump but I assure you that they will have more than enough to live comfortably for life," she said.
The huge number of people applying for the teachers' training courses is strong indication that the remuneration is attractive. Indy agreed that teachers' salary has indeed improved tremendously and is now comparable with the private sector. In fact, it may be better if you compare the number of hours they work. In addition to a good basic salary, there is housing, cost of living, hardship (for East Malaysia rural areas) and many other allowances.
Teachers are paid even before they start teaching. During the training courses, they get a monthly allowance ranging from RM400 to RM1,600. The basic starting salary for graduates is RM1,695.65. Add in the other allowances and the total can come up to nearly RM3,000 - not bad for starters!
Don't forget the other perks - the pension and the gratuity after they retire, the low interest rates for housing and car loans, free medical treatments at government hospitals and others.
But beyond the material benefits, Indy asserted that teaching is a call to care for God's sheep in schools.
Fishing where the fishes are
"If you are a fishing enthusiast, where would you go to fish? Rivers? Tasik Kenyir? Deep sea-fishing? Yes to all, but definitely NOT a swimming pool! You must fish where the fishes are," she said.
"Likewise when we think of strategies to reach children and youths, we need to think of where they are all congregated.
"We may find a small percentage in shopping malls, cinemas, football fields or in cyber-cafes at some parts of the day or night. But almost 95 percent of them are in our government schools for 195 days a year, five days a week, six hours a day. We must fish where the fishes are."
How vast is the mission field in our schools today? As at 31 January 2009, there are 5.5 million students in government primary and secondary schools. There are 265,000 teachers in the teaching force but only around five percent are Christians.
The sea is truly plentiful but the fishermen are few.
In a way, teachers are 'paid missionaries', sent into towns and kampungs all over the country not just to educate our children but to impact their lives. They are in positions of great influence to mould and shape the next generation who will be the future of our churches and country.
"And yet, we have so few 'missionaries' here. No wonder we lack godly influence in our schools. No wonder we are seeing problems among the youth cropping into our churches," Indy lamented.
"Many of these problems are attitude-based - good attitudes could be more easily developed in schools when students spent at least 30 hours a week compared with three to five hours in a local church."
The Christian teacher has the enviable position of having at least 5,000 lives to impact in their teaching career, Indy pointed out.
If this does not inspire our Christian youths to move out into teaching, we can still dangle the salary bait. |
