

Friday, February 09, 2007

Students Fail, Teachers to be Blamed?

Posted by Melanie

I think this is a very common issue among us students. We fail and we blame the teachers.

Question is, is it really the teacher's fault?

From my personal view, i would say it's not entirely the teacher's fault, but 80% , the blame is on the teacher.

I was in the government school for 13 years. (Primary one until upper six) and i honestly havent met more than five dedicated teachers. I don't know about you guys, or maybe i was unlucky. Most of the teachers teach because they are paid to, and couldn't be bothered to mix around with the students.

I do believe there's a few types of teachers that we should put the blame on. 1st they are teachers who teach because they "just want to do their duty". They do not care whether you are paying attention or not , or whether we get good grades. All they care is "they did their duty". this are the type of teachers who basically do not even know we progressed or not. I used to have this teacher who write a whole board of notes but do not bother whether we copy or not.

Second, the teacher that do not respect students. I hate teachers who took for granted their students. I think respect is a vice versa thing , regardless your age. If teachers want us to respect them , they should respect us too. In my opinion, teachers who scold their students stupid is very rude. Teachers should know that by scolding their students stupid, indirectly , they are pulling the student's spirit to study down. It makes them feel very low about themself. Not only that, teacher's should also know how to respect student's privacy by not touching on any sensitive issues. For instance, our parents. Teachers always teach us about manners. Shouldn't they talk to us in a mannered way as well? I do believe when we hate the teacher , or when we are at low spirit , we tend to hate the subject . Therefore we wont study for it and Fail!

Third is the lazy teacher. I guess this is the most common one. this is the type of teacher who goes in the class , say a few words and assign you to do some work , or say "do your own work". Then they'll keep pesturing you to hand it up, but when you hand it up , you will only get it back after a few months when you totally forget there is such assignment, or even worse, you do not get it back at all. Therefore you wont know your mistakes . Instead you keep repeating the same mistake again during exam.

Fourth , the teacher who looks down on students. Like i told you all in my previous post, i was in arts for form 6. I have this MUET teacher who keep looking down on our english and say that we will definitely get lousy results in our MUET. She do not even teach us , and even if she do, she sounded like she 's just wasting her time and as though as teaching us makes no meaning.We did less than 3 essays in a year! Hey , even if we suck, she's suppose to teach us! True enough , most of my classmates scored only Band 3, But , i was smart enough not to rely on her. I got myself a band 5 instead.

Fifth, the teacher who has mood swings. 5 minutes of cheers, 5 minutes of madness. Get what i mean? Or those teachers who bring personal problems to class. I had always remembered a teacher who canned me till my hand was blue-black just for not doing her homework. And the entire class got canned as well , coz no one actually did her work. Not because i was in a weak class, infact i was in one of the best class. But it was because she wasnt in a good mood that day and she wanted to release her anger. She's always like that! Seriously , teachers are so much older than us , and they are mature enough to know they should be profesional in their work and never let emotions control them!

Last but not least, the teachers who not fair. They have their own "pet" and they pay more attention to the particular one. There should not be any "un-fairness" in the class , and teachers should treat every students the same. Wont it be unfair for those who are unlucky , and the teacher doesn't like them , and they fail? Just because the teacher "CHOSE" not to like them.Teacher's duty is to mould us be it they like it or not. Be professional , teachers!!

Of course, NOT all teachers are like that. There are some teachers that really do their duty wholeheartedly. I do believe if there is more dedicated teachers around, the quality of the malaysian education system will totally boost up. Like now , it seems like a lot of tuition centres is earnig big money . Is is because the teachers in school are not good enough? How about those who cant afford tuition?

I do know that , we are the ones who decides. Teachers are just there to give guidance. If we get lousy teachers , we should be mature enough to find our own way. At the end of the day, we are the one facing exam , and getting that piece of "paper". But , if we are at the point where teachers do not help at all , what are the use of teachers?

Disclaimer : This are just my point of view. And i am not blaming all the teachers . Cheers!


  1. I read or saw this study once about how the way a teacher treats a student, affects them in their studies. Those that are treated nicer and are expected to do well actually have better grades than those who already assume to be lousy students/failures.

    Therefore, it is important that a teacher treats every student as if they had high hopes for them regardless of gender, race or religion. None should make presumptions or be biased against anyone.

    Truthful post (although there are some cases where students ARE to blame for not trying any harder/not caring - i know some like that)

  2. heeya! waasup
    ive been in private school since kindergarden until high scholl. but stpm i take at government scholl. the situation at govr. scholl and private scholl are not the same level. i can proof that to all of u but the teachers has same attitude theres no different.
    from my point of view, teacher is teacher no matter where they teach. as u said they have "gold student " and "silver student". they always like to give 210% attention to student that they target will get 100% marks in the exam, but they dont know that their "gold student" like to cheat. its happens to me, when im in form 3, i was everaged student low-pofile. so, few teachers love to ignored my group based on my group result. so, we proof to them that they`re so damned wrong about us.my group decide to move on to another scholl because our result was good. then, the teacher that always ignored us start to give us some attention. so, we say thank you to that teacher and we say we want to move out from the scholl.

    did u get my point? eventhough lots of student fail because of teacher. but no all teachers like that, its not fair! sometimes some student like to take an advantages from their teachers! thats what i saw in government scholl! im not saying that govern. scholl is good than private scholl! but the most important is how student creates the realations with teachers and know how to make an impact for their self. but remember every life has it circumstances

    want to know batter what my points just email me [email protected]

  3. I remember in SPM, I had lousy teachers too. Those who really can't teach very well, but they were nice and respectful. Then again, I believe we students were very boastful as well what with the many tuition classes that we pride ourselves with. We think we know it better thus turning deaf ears to teachers in school.

    Students fail because they are not disciplined. And the one thing that teachers can do in school is to discipline us with education. But look at the majority of school cases today where parents will go all out to blame teachers who just reprimand their child for a good purpose. So, can we really blame teachers? I think not.

  4. Dear all,

    To blame or not to blame? It is a tough question. I'm going to sit on the fence although I do side the students more, not because I am a student but definitely, the teacher should be blame.

    But however, lets look on the neutral side. I will take you into a scenario of the teacher first. Many Malaysian teachers, in nature, do care for the students. They come to school and they teach. Students do not understand, they will help. However, I grew up in a prestigious school in the country (remaining anonymous unless someone knows me), some teachers tend to slack in their teaching. If any of you had watched the recent movie by Jack Neo from Singapore entitled "Follow the Law", these teachers would actually sometimes get ready their car keys and packed up their bags just to escape from the school once the bell of the school rings. Whatever you need from them, see you tomorrow then. This is partially of the scenario why students smoetimes fail in their examination. Tuition teachers come to their aid but that is sometimes once per week. It's not enough!

    Looking into the students' perspective, I would say not all students are born to fail their examinations. It is their own attitude of "Tidak Apa" that makes them fail in their exams. I've came across so many students that does that in school. They can sleep or chatting all the way when they do not have the interest in that subject at all but disturbing others who wish to learn. It is so annoying to see such people in the class. When the results have been released, swearing words were uttered and the blame will go to their teachers / lecturers / professors. How unfortunate that these innocent teachers are put to the blame although they tried their very best to educate and to deliver their lessons in class. I have came across students who procrastinate till the very last minute. Like the saying goes "PROCRASTINATION KILLS" and indeed these people will start rushing for all their last minute work and seeking help from those who have yet to enjoy their funtime.

    All in all, I do not see that why the teachers would get so much of a blame but however, I am just taking a neutral position and do not wish to side any parties in this case.

  5. Giving much consideration to the issue here, in my opinion or somehow what I've come across so far, teachers are mostly to be blamed on our failures.

    Yes, I'm well-prepared for I'm-biased statements and critism for what I've just said but at least after that hear me out as a student and someone who wishes to be a teacher in the future?

    I come from a school which has the tendency to put inexperienced teachers in the afternoon sessions. It could just be lady luck for my batch that we received dedicated teachers readily to teach us during our afternoon sessions. I grew interested in every subjects. Sure there's dislike on certain subjects or so but as long as the teacher is willing to assist us curious students, we're willing to learn and ask.

    However, as time flows by, it's already time we shift to morning sessions. I thought it'll be even more interesting than before! And damn how wrong I was. All these teachers...ugh...they ruined their image already. I witness teachers who laze around, teach us students the wrong contents, discriminating students as to provoke them to list down as "BAD" in their permanent records, and most of all wasted my school time!

    Now putting it in a whole new point of view, it could be that because the class wasn't as proactive as how these teachers thought to be had made them act in such manner. I can't blame them for their human but for god sake get the teaching material right! READ THE DAMN BOOK! Such act confuses students which lost their interest in the subject. Oh boy did I lost interest in Physics thanks to my new teacher <.< I had a wonderful teacher once last year but then the teacher couldn't continue any further and there was changes. Sigh, a sad world indeed.

    Sometimes, I wonder has these teachers confuse the real term of their occupation? They're here to educate us, teach us, thus being called teachers. But they somehow LOVE to issue favoutism and bias. As Hanis said, these favoutism blinded these teachers that they have ruined much of their students' life. But on the subject of students cheating I blame themselves for being idiots.

    The more a teacher behaves in such a manner like "I don't care!" or "I'm not wrong" [their kia-su manners really irritates me] the more a student tends to hate the teacher thus hating the subject itself. So and so, they lost their morale to even review their subject. Since this might be my final year before entering into STPM or tertiary education, I brought up a little bit of a test on my fellow classmates.

    Among 28 students, 22 people claimed to long for good results. However only 10 students are actually able to realize it from their hardwork. The others slacks off. I come from a very competitive class [Yes the place where even there's cheaters *grins at those memories of exposing them*] and due to my course I had to join a class migled by the normal classes. I'm not complaining but I receive less pressure, too much fun and lost interest. So students are to be blamed on these cases.

    But then to explain why even in the best classes comes and outcome of students with low grades. Lack of motivation? Could be... Teacher pulling out their lazy acts...somehow... :3 I'll stop here first :D

  6. I must agree with the author that 80% is the teacher fault. When a student would fail in his studies there surely is the teacher have not done well in thier work.

    In preparing for public exam teacher often give exercise on the tough chapter and ignoring those weak student. How do you expect student to do something hard when the simple work they could not understand. Teacher therefor must give more time to the student and divide the attention equally to weak and strong student. Simple exercise and method on easy chapter should be taught to student so they could do be better at the weak chapter and not fail to learn new chapter and forget the easy chapter. If this happen student are sure to fail. So its up to the teacher to attract student attention to studies.

    So if teacher do thier part no student should fail unless having problems. therefor i would conclude that teacher is to be blame for student failure.


  7. My Teacher calls us stupid all the time i Hate her i hate math 2

  8. It's really a tough world out there where people nowadays are very very competitive. So to exactly blame everything on the teachers are not necessary. Of course if the teachers doesn't do their job well, it will be one of a hell time for the student. There are all types of teachers like lazy teachers, bias teacher & etc but nobody's perfect right?? Eventually not only teacher are responsible but parents as well. Parent who pressure their children too much will also affect their study life. I have a friend where her parents usually force her to study subjects that she is not interested in such as forcing her to go science stream during form 4 while her main interest is in accounting. Furthermore they not only don't let her take an accounting course after her SPM and force her into STPM. Therefore, parents are also responsible if their children doesn't score well in exam. In the other hand, the student him/herself should also share partially of the blame. If you know that you yourself is not that brilliant in studies therefore please put more effort in your studies. Nobody suffer the consequences more than you do in the future with the result you get. So study smart. If you know that your subject teacher doesn't help much(or doesn't help at all), and if you can't afford tuition, please ask your friend or classmate to guide you. Do more discussion and always ask when you don't understand. We don't really have to wait until end of school to ask a question, y not ask it during class
    or once the subject is over. Don't always wait till the very last minute because during student life, time is really really precious.

    Well, all I can conclude here is all parties share the blame and none parties are suppose to be responsible for everything.
    Thank you for reading.

  9. i m a student.. for me maybe u are unlucky.. sorry to said so.. because me as a student i saw that many of my teachers
    really teach us without blame.. some of the teacher provide us exercises without any payment.. most teachers in my school not fierce.. they are volunteers who spend their time to type n search the exercises for us.. so not 100% all teachers will blame students...

  10. Oh well, I just come across to this post.

    Blame or not to Blame ?

    For me, if it is about your own results, I think we shouldn't blame on our teachers or lecturers. Well, I do once in my pre-Uni life blame on a lecturer and almost FAIL his subject. Only that time I realise that, I or maybe other students who keep on blaming on teachers/lecturers are just finding myself/themselves a reason to be lazy, to skip their studies or to push their responsibility to the other people. That results is yours, you should have grab it yourself. If the teacher is good, then you are lucky. You might not need to do any external work to score an A in that subject. BUT, if the teacher is bad, what can we do ? Save your time blaming on the teacher. It is better to use our precious to find an alternative way to study for that subject. Am I right ? It is far more better than find a person and blame everything on them. Ya, I agreed that some of them are bad, maybe WORST but we should think for our future. STOP relying on them and find other way to score that paper.

  11. yes..i agree with your opinion from 1 to 4.but no 5,teacher is a human too anyway..if we talk about being a woman who always had mood swings,the women can understand but maybe men not..n the same things happen if we talk about being a teacher who always had mood swings,the teachers can understand but maybe non-teacher/ students not..
    teacher also has their own problems, u know..therefore, as student, we should respect them..but if the teacher has mood swings every time he/she came in the class, the teacher him/herself has something wrong somewhere..
    i knew how it feels coz now i'm doing my teaching practical in school and has to face many kinds of students..so, as a new teacher, i'm so determined to teach, prepare all the lessons materials 2 days before get into the class and sometimes i do sleep at four..but when the students did not want to learn and came to school just to play n etc, my heart broke..
    n i knew how it feels to have teacher who was determined to teach and one who teach us by reading the text book only coz i once called a 'student'.

  12. ~~ I realized that none of the commentors are actually teachers.. I am a novice teacher tho but me on the other hand..will prefer to be on the fence also.. But..I wouldn't BLAME it entirely on one side..And why? Because I was and am in both places now and before..

    When I was a student, I hate teachers who love to nag in the classroom..and I dun questioned their style of teaching..As for me , I have no problems with teachers that I have.. As long as I remember, my teachers did a very good job of giving me space to learn how to be on my own... I was being drilled by the teachers before any of the big exams and I excelled in every one of them..And why?..Because of the teachers.. and also my parents at home who took their precious time to actually teach me after school...

    When I am a student trying to educate the students ( and I am teaching in one of the best school in Penang tho..) I fully understand why teachers are being ignorance sometimes... You can't take for granted that teachers will be pushing everyone of you in the classroom when they are actually teaching 180 students at the same time...Yes, I am currently teaching 180 students and only after 3 months I can actually remember everybody's name...180...per year..And I keep on worrying for those who are lazy, those who skips classess, those who wants to stand up out of the crowd, those who wants to purposely flung the paper..Chances after chances given but dear students..teachers are looking over 180 students but you, why can't you help yourself..Just your very own self... If they dun seem to teach, go and consult her...for sure, she/he will not scream at you at no reason...Teachers are humans too...Their behaviour will be from the rationale anyway, unless they are crazy lah...

    We got this kind of teachers we called 'tuition teachers'..Hello dear students, they are school teachers also..teaching in the same school but sucks at school...Sorry to use a bad word anyway...But there are teachers who don't teach at school but have tuition centres.. Are these your real teachers? Max of 20 students per class..teachers who teach you how to pass your exams?..If that so, pay a teacher, get him/her to drill you up..one to one...for sure you can excel...

    As for me , I am teaching 180 students ( 4 classes of lower forms )...2 hours of tuition to the asrama students form 5 (40 students)...and another 2 hours to the form 1 ( 40+ students )..I tried to be as close as possible..But it will go down to one thing...that I always say " Help yourself and I will help you"...I want them to excel, I show them step by step, I lead them by getting them to write one by one...But what do I got on the exams paper..Not even near to whatever I taught them...So.. blame it on the teachers?..

    And rushing back home?..Dear, we finish school at 2:40 everyday..The meeting will end at 3:30pm...and at 8:00pm to 10:00pm - asrama tuition time... It's already killing me, the single not married yet teacher..

    Ever think how it would be if a married with children teachers doesnt rush home and end up working from 7:30 to 5:00 every week days and with the perkembangan staff on Saturdays.. We are basicly working extra hours...6 days a week.. We are the manager, we are the teachers, we are the advisors...

    So after this I will be seeing blog of a child whom their parents are teachers blaming the students because their parents are not with them..and does not care of their duty as parents..

    Think of it...

  13. And one more,,,ever seen excellent students being interviewed by the press saying...I want to thank my TEACHERS...? Have you?..No?..but it will go like this "I WANT TO THANK MY PARENTS FRO TEH CONTINOUS SUPPORT...I wonder why... but why if they fail it will be "THE TEACHERS DO NOT TEACH PROPERLY./ DUNNO HOW TO TEACH"..? (^^) Ponder ponder..

  14. not the teachers foult,,,is the government sh foult....duh....stuill need to think why?

  15. i am a local university student and my parent is a teacher.
    you know what, i don't even dare to say, it is teacher who should be blamed when students fail. it depends actually.
    if the teacher are so lousy, so they should be blamed. and vice versa.
    my parent,a teacher, is just as busy as PM. he hardly have time for me and even himself.
    24/7 just thinking about students in his school and how to make sure that they will pass the exam with flying colors. logically, they are doing their part, but, did you do your part as a student(studying hard, playing hard)?
    did you?
    and is it government's fault too when it is you who should be blamed actually?
    yes, there are too many deficiencies in our education system. i agree. but if you help yourself, go get a good result, and at the end of the day, no one is to be blamed~
    believe me

  16. eow guys!
    you know some teacher says that they are a bar passer so we should respect them,but in some cases after they passed in a bar exam when they where in the field of teaching they didn't do there responsibility they are aftering there salary they doesn't care for the future of there student!!

  17. I am a teacher and I completely disagree with this article. When I come into teach, if a student does not write down the notes, that is their choice. If they get a job and come in and do no work, that is their choice. I teach high school science, and I am not about to stop a lesson because some kid did not want or feel like taking notes that day. I simply won't do it. In addition, teaching includes lecturing! There will always be some type of lecture in my class...that means I am teaching! Teaching does not equal one-on-one tutoring. Yes, I said it. Listening to a lecture of mine and responding means you are actively engaged in the class. It also means that, gasp, I am teaching. I'm not sure when or where this concept developed, but for some reason, certain students think that if I am not personally attending to them or having one-on-one conversations with them in my class, then I am not teaching. This concept is ridiculous. If you go to college and sit in a class of 300 students, in which the professor lectures, are you going to claim that they are not teaching because they did not walk up to you and ask you personally if you had any questions? I didn't think so.

  18. well i am a teacher.. i am eager to teach my students.. I even go to them individually to check on the.. but the students usually do not want to do what i ask them to do... So it is the student's attitude that is causing the problem in learning process... they have to learn to respect their teacher in order to learn better...





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