THERE we go again! Another sector of the civil service will be getting higher pay based on experience and qualification.

The health minister acknowledges that Malaysia cannot continue to have cheap labour any longer and that the Health Ministry is working on improving the overall salary of nurses.

While I am not against rewarding nurses, I am concerned that another group of government servants is being treated like second-class civil servants.

I am concerned about how teachers are being side-tracked in respect of promotions and emoluments.

Teachers also form part of the critical service industry.

The Education Ministry and Public Service Department should take note that there are many graduate teachers with more than 20 years of service and most are stuck at scale DG44 or DG48. Why are these teachers not given due recognition?

What is most demoralising is that quite a significant number of these teachers have obtained their master’s degrees and even doctorates, but they are not rewarded like other civil servants.

They are not promoted or upgraded to a better scheme even with all the extra qualifications.

Before anyone accuses me of sour grapes, let me state here that I only have a basic degree and I did not attempt to further my studies because I did not see any benefit from obtaining the extra qualification.

The only satisfaction would be self-satisfaction, but I bet my last sen that those teachers who sought to improve on their degrees were hoping that they would be rewarded one day. Looking at things now, I do not see this happening in the near future.

Senior teachers who upgraded themselves from diploma to degree level have been denied perks and benefits in the past two years. The National Union of the Teaching Profession has only been paying lip service to the welfare of these teachers. Teachers of my batch and earlier are affected. It is heart-wrenching to see juniors getting better perks when we were the ones who were there first.

How do you expect teachers from my era and earlier to respect those who got promoted for being at the right place at the right time?

I, for one, will never look up to teachers or education officers who are in senior positions but who are less experienced and much younger. Give the seniors a break.

Source: NST – November 20, 2008