KUANTAN: The quote ‘A good teacher is like a candle that consumes itself while lighting the way for others’ seems to aptly describe former history teacher Masariah Mispari who has been named Tokoh Guru Kebangsaan 2024.
Affectionately called Cikgu Masariah, 62, this Johor native always strived to create innovations to make it easier for her students to be interested in and understand her history lessons and go on to obtain excellent grades. For her efforts, she bagged the innovative teacher award at the Federal Territories level in 1995, 2000 and 2014.
“I make innovations in class to make the teaching and learning (PdP) method interesting and easy...the target is for all my students to get an “A”, if anyone gets a “B”, then I literally cry,” she said when met after the National Teachers’ Day 2024 celebration, themed Guru Jauhari Digital, Aspirasi Negara MADANI here yesterday.
In fact, the mother-of-two continued her studies at the Masters of Science level (Guidance and Counseling) at Universiti Putra Malaysia so that she could better understand her students’.
“I believe that if we work hard, we will be successful and my advice to young teachers is that every assignment and position is not a burden but gives us the experience to be efficient and relevant in every place,“ she said.
Masariah retired from teaching at Sultan Alam Shah Putrajaya School on Feb 1, 2019 at the age of 58 due to health reasons. She now shares her knowledge at the Malaysian Islamic Economic Development Foundation (YAPEIM).
Earlier, she received her recognition from Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who also presented the 2024 National Education Leadership Figure to former Education deputy director-general Datuk Sulaiman Wak.
Sulaiman, 65, who has served as an educator for 36, began his teaching career in Kuching, Sarawak, considers the recognition not only as a success for him but to be shared with his other friends.
“If there was no help from friends who cooperated well with me, I would not have achieved excellence. Therefore, I share this recognition with all my friends in any institution that I have served in so far,” he said.
“The cooperation and support of people around us are so important to achieve success,“ said the former rector of the Institute of Teacher Education who also played a role in making the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2013-2025 a success.
The native of Sarawak, who was the principal of the five schools, also left a message to the current generation of educators to always stick to the national education philosophy.
“For the teachers now, we want to give birth to versatile people. Due to today’s challenges, teachers have to be able to adapt to the current situation,“ said the father of five children.
Meanwhile, Education director-general Azman Adnan said teachers need to be prepared to face change and the Education Ministry has prepared various training programmes for them to increase their knowledge and skills, especially in the digital aspect.
Azman, who was appointed to the position in February, also said that it is the ministry's commitment to ensure that educators are equipped with appropriate knowledge.
“Our education needs to be driven to the best level; we have to accept the fact that change will always happen so we need to be ready to face change because what is important is what we want to give future generation,” he said.
“Teachers need to be prepared if there are new things, so they have to strengthen their knowledge and skills related to those new things so that our students get the appropriate knowledge based on current education.”
Touching on the agenda of developing the quality of education, he said his side is currently in the process of enacting and developing a new curriculum for the 2027 school session.
“So far we are conducting various engagement sessions, seminars, workshops, townhalls to get the views of various parties involving all groups of society including teachers, parents, students, and scholars and through this effort we are confident that the quality of education can be improved,“ he added.
