Teaching Load

"Oyis, dalam sehari, berapa jam ek ko kena mengajar?"

"Em.. dalam SEMINGGU, enam jam kot. Kalo kena ajar kelas Master, sembilan jam."

"ENAM JAM SEMINGGU??? Perghhh... kalo cikgu tu enam jam tu mengajar dalam sehari."

*memandang aku dengan keji*

I get this a lot.

I know what people are thinking. Enam jam seminggu, what am I doing with the rest of my time? Right?

SIGH.

I am pretty tired of trying to explain this. I know being a lecturer seems the most flexible work option, and it is. But, six hours of teaching does not equate to six hours of work. In order to obtain the materials for the six hours of teaching, I need to probably spend around 15 hours of prep work. Seriously. Like drawing out the notes, reading up materials, updating myself, drafting assignment questions, planning Student-Centred Learning activities, etc.. etc... Tu belum masuk bab marking, drafting exam questions dan sebagainya. 

I don't like to compare the workload with Guru, but since everybody is, here's the deal: Teachers dah ada kurikulum dia sendiri that they must follow, and some of the materials dah ready-made (buku aktiviti itself dah byk membantu), but to us lecturers, we have to start everything from scratch. Don't get me wrong, I love the opportunity to be creative - teach what you want to teach as long as it doesn't stray too far from the course content, teach how I like it, when I like it. But, with very loose structure, we tend to have to do the bulk of the work on our own. This is not to say yg kerja Guru ringan. No, kerja diorg dah melambak jg, dan makin berat dan maybe even underpay. I have my highest respect for Guru2. Takde isu di situ. The problem I have is with people yg mengeji my work. 

By the by, teaching is only 35% of my workload je ladies and gentleman. The rest is supervision and research. Supervision is tiring. Masalah student adalah masalah kita. Imagine kalo sorg student jumpa, tak pernah less than one hour. Ni meeting tiap2 minggu ni ok. So like me kalo ada 4 postgrad students yg I currently supervise (as main supervisor, belum lg cerita kalo kita jd co-supervisor), how many hours is that? To yg face-to-face la. But sebelum student tu dtg, I have to read up some journals, baca draft diorg, correct paper diorg, etc, etc... It probably takes 2-3 hour of background work dulu. It's basically like doing PhD all over again. Do you want to do my job?

Then yg undergrads pun ada Final Year Project diorg which I have to supervise jgk. Although minor je project diorg on the scheme of things, but they can be very clingy and unsure. Letih gak nak tolong. And again, each student about 30 minutes meet. Prep time before meet usually 30 minutes jgk. 

Then of course, meeting, bengkel, kursus, seminar yg kena tunjuk muka and also event2 wajib Uni. Waktu senggang tulis paper or journal. Or isi borang apply geran. Kalau dah ada geran, isi buku progress research. Oh lupa nak mention. Buat research. Sometimes that involves coding, sometimes kena semuka dgn org, kadang kena turun naik pejabat kerajaan pun ada, tgk la research apa.

I know kerja org lain pun byk jg. I am in no way saying kerja org lain senang. But to be perceived as kerja paling senang, boleh gi shopping sokmo waktu opis hour adalah statement yang mengundang pelempang agak tidak tepat. 

And anyway, if my job seems easy to you, then apply lah jadi lecturer. Tukar career. Bukan susah pun. Kena ada degree, Master and then complete PhD. Mudah je. Plus or minus 10 years belajar.Lps tu dah boleh mengajar 6 jam seminggu. Kan? 

PS: Malam2 sambung mengajar Aisyah plak. Minggu ni Ujian Bulanan dia, so mmg overtime. Lps makan malam sampai almost bedtime buat revision. Dalam gmbr kat atas dia pakai tudung sbb masuk rumah je terus siapkan kerja sekolah, tudung tak tanggal, baju tak salin, tgh2 org azan Maghrib tu jam2 tu jgk nak buat. Bila sekolah aliran agama, mmg workload dia byk. So many subjects to revise. Tapi budak2 kecik amaze me. Baca sekali dia dah ingat dah material (bukan Aisyah sahaja, but kids in general). Impressive. Hati suci la katakan bukan macam aku.