THE National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) is urging the Government to consider absorbing the 412 clerical assistants into the civil service or extending their contracts in schools.
The contracts of the 412 selected as part of a pilot project to reduce the burden of teachers in 2012, ended last month.
The union presented a memorandum on the issue to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail at her office last week.
NUTP president Kamarozaman Abd Razak said these assistants are important as they have greatly reduced teachers’ administrative duties and allowed them to focus on their core teaching duties.
He said that the memorandum was presented to Dr Wan Azizah because she has expressed her desire to create a position for assistant teachers.
Melaka had been selected to run the pilot project, followed by Kedah.
The project was also extended to Sabah in 2013 but terminated after just six months.
Nur Aizah Abd Rahim, a clerical assistant from Melaka, said she is sad that her contract is being terminated.
She said she was trained to handle the jobs of a resource and media teacher, and has made it easier for the teachers in her school to focus on their students.
“We key in the data for the teachers into the online systems,” she said when asked about her duties at a secondary school.
Kamarozaman said these assistants are needed so that teachers can focus on their teaching duties.
Last week, he said the clerical assistants are part-time workers who are paid RM54 daily and meant to reduce the teachers’ burden by carrying out work such as filing in students’ data and documents online.
“We hope those in Kedah and Melaka are retained permanently while more clerical assistants are introduced in other states,” he said.
The pilot project was introduced by then Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin under a pioneer programme to strengthen the teaching profession under the National Blue Ocean Strategy, he said.