I came back Spirited

Then Dismayed.
No, it's not that I miss my month of May, when Poets and their asspirants are extraordinary geneorus with words.
It's only words, and Words are all I have To take your heart away...

So where did I go for my sojourn?
Briefly, I went to Massachusetts, in Spirit.

"And the lights all went out in Massachussets
The day I left to see my way with you"

See, I told you I was/am/will be a BeeGgie one day, didn't I? Finally made it to final 10
of asiablogawards. Do they reward as well as for teachers? Miss Penanggal, Lucia Lai, please whisper...

I experimented with going into Darkness for 48. MIA -- Missing In Action -- is good therapy for the spirit, I don't know about the Soul!

There is a distinction between Spirit and Soul, I'm told by two Blogger-teachers, Yan of yantouch.wordpress, who provides manna for the soul, and joepsc of jp-sijun.blogspot.com,who gifts with poems that Desi envies.

I wonder if these two teachers -- one in Kuching, the other in Sinland, they avoid Desi in Furong as they did not want me to know...I think, or suspect! My question point blank is Do they also give tuition? -- If, yes, I'm tempted to bill them alternate Sundays for my CON BF!

NST today frontpage

More teachers slacking in school to ride the tuition gravy train -- and they think it's okay...

Teacher 1:
'Some of us teach the basics in school.
We teach what is needed, yo understand
the details, the students attend tuition.'

Tecaher 2:

'Teachers no longer want to give their best in
school. If we giive our best, there is no way we
can earn the additional income.'

My dear ER: Guess how much do these Teachers earn from tuition?
My comment: IN-decent.

The sum DIS-MAYS Desi. And it's now only September.

I won't mention here because the warning sign came on: "Kuasa anda akan terputus-diputus 60 seconds (or saat, which sounds like a name of a person) dari sekarang."




Basics at school,
the rest at tuition
11 Sep 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: They teach the basics or go through the motions in school. Then they tell their students to attend tuition classes if they want a better understanding.

After saying the 40-minute teaching periods are insufficient to get everything across, they add: "Those who need further assistance, please attend my tuition classes."

Brazen? Certainly. They also ask their students to pass the word around that they are running tuition classes.

The number of teachers who openly solicit students for tuition classes, it appears, is on the rise.

With parents eager to give a leg-up to their children in an increasingly competitive environment — and the fact that having one’s own teacher provide tuition is considered a plus point — there is no dearth of students.

This is particularly so in urban areas where teachers are raking in the money.

Some of these teachers can afford luxurious landed properties, go for annual overseas trips and drive imported cars.

PS: If the kuasa returns, SemuaNya OK, Desi will continue with some elaboration. K!

PPS @11.00PM:

Yes, like Superman and his kryptonite power(I hope I get spell right!), Desi comes back with no vengeance, just a mite spirited after downing a CON dinner for a 'special' occasion -- 9-11, Remember?), so motivated to write aMore...

Just C&P from NST again:




It’s a gold mine for father of two

John Tang

Salary: RM1,800

Housing loan: RM650 monthly for 25 years

Car loan: RM480 monthly

Tuition fee for two children: RM360 monthly

Groceries: RM450 monthly

Wife’s salary: RM1,400

Income from tuition: RM10,000 to RM11,000 monthly

Most money spent on leisure: During Chinese New Year, about RM10,000

Five years after starting to give tuition, 35-year-old Tang would not have it any other way. After all, he earns at least RM10,000 monthly.

He solicits students for additional classes at the beginning of the year.

The primary school teacher started with Mathematics tuition. To his surprise, 45 students responded in the first month.

"I started charging RM60 monthly for twice-a-week tuition."

Tang said by the beginning of 2001, he had 200 students from different schools.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


RM2,100 pay not enough for bills

R. Kaur

Salary: RM2,100

Housing loan: RM520 monthly for 25 years

Car loan: RM557 monthly

Tuition fee for two children: RM780 monthly

Husband’s income: RM2,950

Income from tuition: RM6,000 monthly

Most money spent on leisure: Travelling to Asia and Europe, about RM5,500 per year

"We were short of money and my husband and I had to trim our expenses," Kaur said.

She moaned that her RM2,100 salary monthly seemed to just slip through their hands as they tried hard to meet escalating expenses, including their children’s tuition fees and housing loan payments.

Kaur had been teaching in a secondary school for nine years before venturing into giving tuition to earn extra income in 2003.

"I saw many students struggling with their subjects. I informed them of my plan to give tuition and the response was good."

She had 100 students at first. Now, she teaches 20 students daily."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yan, Joepsc and Mave raised some interesting points, which I bring to frontpage for rumination -- we need mental supper besides chowing down mee goreng or black pepper steak! I hope otrher ER lend their views as some point in life, this question of your child/children going for extra classes, tuition or school-conducted, will arise.

3 comment(s):

Are teachers so poorly paid to resort to that you said, or is it their greedy scheme to afford that extra fling?

Can Desi teach us something?

By Joepsc, at 3:09 PM

Could it be the parents and teachers?

I studied a little of economics - the demand and supply.

We need an economist here beside the spiritual 'guru'.

Yan

By Yan, at 7:28 PM

Let the teachers earned some extras... they didn't steal; the politicians did but semua OK....
By Maverick SM, at 7:55 PM

DESI adds:

Joepsc, teachers here are paid just like other civil servants, depending on their grades, with of course, the highest being graduate teachers with recogised tertiary qualifications. (I speak with some insider information as a few in my family are teachers, and one of them watches Boston Public without fail.)

The top of the rung are headmasters are specialist teachers who are emplaced on Super Scale (Special Grade), just like other branches of government service officers moving from Grade E, upwards to D, C etc.

Yan, I think I know what you're thinking -- that society is developing like a lassaire fair (need to check spell here again!) marketplace, following the Law of Supply and Demand, and the fees/costs of the services involved (in this case, tuition fees).

Brother Mave has a point that we should adopt the attitude to "Let the teachers earn some extras... they didn't steal;...)

I totally agree, but "some extras" would normally mean a FRACTION of their official pay they earn as teachers. If this "extra" sum translates into "several times" (as in the cases cited by the newspapers, though I believe it's only some of the hugely popular tuition teachers earning that sort of extras!), then my viewpoint, IT'S WRONG.

I am no saint either. As a journalist, I did some "freelance editing" occasionally to earn maybe several hundred ringgit extra, even then, NOT every month, once in a blue moon! Several hunded is a fraction of my humble gaji of a few thousand-lah! I c an decalre IT if you assure me the IRS would give Desi a refund, because I think a few years they over-taxed Desi but I just Let It Be...

Back to the subject matter, if a teacher could earn three or four times (RM6,000 to RM10,000 in the two cases reported) his salary as official pay from the Government, I think on principle he should just give up the government's job and go into tuition fulltime. Giving tuition for long hours would mean he/she is not focusing on his teacher's profession. One can't have the cake and eat IT too. (Though here I tahank one Prose for offering Desi cheesecake to go with my tehtarik last Sunday when I went MIA -- yes, some things in life you get gratis, but that's because a GOoD friend is considerate of you.)

But thank God, I have personally witnesses teachers who give extra classes to "less progressive" pupils with NO FEES charged, on afternoons or Saturdays to truly help those who ate in greatest need.I also now some parents insist on their children going for tuition even when their teachers have rated them as performing in school. Don't the parents there is more sense in investing in deveeloping the kids' extra-mural skills like music, laying a msuical instrument, sing or dance like Elvis, Madonna or Beyond or Siti Nurhaliza.

If we are to have an education system that is close to be fair and equitable, I believe teachers should be restricted to giving tuiition to earn not more than 50% of their pay. Anything more would mean they are not performing at least to a minimum standdard while teaching in school. And of course, the fact is that pupils/students from the low-income groups are again disadvantaged -- they can't afford any tuition because it is "too expensive" from their parents' earnings poitn of view.

THe Government has moved towards quite an egalitarian system of schooling where no child should be deprived of at least 6+3 years of education, enhanced with the latest Budget provision that no fees for public examinations will be levied from 2007. I seldom praise the Education Ministry for progressing in the "RIGHT" DIRECTION. BUT two Fridays ago, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration did something right. And we must acknowledge we indeed have a leader, despiute his elegant silence, is listening. In his quiet, but eloquent ways.