SELAMAT BERPUASA

Saya mengucapkan selamat berpuasa kepada semua teman dan sahabat semoga kita semua diberi kesihatan dan kesejahteraan sepanjang bulan ibadah penuh barakah ini.
Kesabaran kita adalah kunci iltizam memenuhi seruan Allah SWT menunaikan puasa yang sempurna. Amin.

Akhirnya Kerajaan bersikap perihatin..

Saya telah menulis tentang harga minyak yang turun-naik sejak Julai, sebulan setelah Kerajaan menaikkannya dari RM1.90 kepada RM2.70 (RM2.69 bagi Sarawak/Sabah). Hari ini harga minyak diturunkan sebanyak 15 sen bagi RON97 dan 22 sen bagi RON92; dan masing-masingnya akan turun kepada RM2.55 dan RM2.40 mulai tengah malam ini. Pasaran hadapan minyak ialah sekitar USD120.00-USD121.00, penurunan sebanyak antara USD12.00-USD13.00. Syabas dan terima kasih atas pertimbangan dan tindakan tersebut. Berikut ialah petikan daripada laporan Bernama

Petrol And Diesel Price To Drop Saturday

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 22 (Bernama) -- The petrol and diesel price will drop by between eight sen and 22 sen respectively Saturday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced Friday that the Cabinet had decided that the price of RON97 petrol be reduced by 15 sen to RM2.55 a litre from RM2.70, while RON92 would cost 22 sen less at RM2.40 a litre from RM2.62 a litre.

The retail price of diesel would drop by eight sen to RM2.50 a litre, he said in a statement.

The petrol price was determined by taking into account the actual price from Aug 1 to 21 and the 30 sen per litre subsidy borne by the government while the subsidy for diesel, based on the new price, was 50 sen a litre.

"The cabinet today decided to bring forward the enforcement date for adjustment of the new petrol price," he said.

Abdullah said the decision was made after taking into account the fall in the world fuel price in recent weeks and the steep rise in the inflation rate last month.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for last month, as announced today, rose by 8.5 per cent compared with July last year.

"It is the government's hope that the reduction in the petrol and diesel price will help ease the burden of consumers and reduce the inflationary pressure, especially on the low- and middle-income earners. The decision is also based on the current economic development," the prime minister said.

On Aug 1, the government announced that the petrol retail price till the end of the year would be adjusted on the first of every month, with the subsidy maintained at 30 sent per litre.

However, the prime minister said the adjustment formula would only be implemented if the retail price of petrol was less than RM2.70 per litre. Otherwise the price would be capped at that.

On June 5, the government raised the petrol price by 78 sen or 41 per cent from RM1.92 to RM2.70 a litre and diesel by RM1 or 63 per cent from RM1.58 to RM2.58 a litre.

At that time the world oil price was US$125 a barrel and it continued to rise to hover at US$140 a barrel at one time but has been on a downward trend since early this month.

The price was around US$115 a barrel last week and US$121 a barrel yesterday.

With today's announcement, the drop in price of RON97 petrol was 5.5 per cent, RON92 (8.4 per cent) and diesel (3.1 per cent).

-- BERNAMA

Just One More Time..What satisfy teachers?

Findings based on my research on teachers' career satisfaction about eight years ago when pursuing my doctoral studies at UWA, has been shared in a number of forums locally and abroad. When the initial proposal was submitted to the Graduate School of Education, UWA in Perth in 1999, I secured a travel grant from the Australian Government, giving me an opportunity to present my paper at an international conference on teaching in Hong Kong. I remembered one question was asked by one of the participants: What actually satisfy teachers?

Last Wednesday, 20 August 2008, on my way back to Kuching via Brunei, Dr. Haji Loji Haji Saibi, Principal of Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Foundation Secondary School invited me to talk to his teachers (including those from the primary and preschool). I recalled giving him my book "Quality Burnout: an investigation of teachers' career satisfaction in Sarawak" and he ticked me on it this time. I recalled Dr. Loji's research was on work attitude and has also written a book on it. His interest on the subject began when pursuing his doctorate at QUT Brisbane more than 15 years ago.

Conceptually, career or job satisfaction refers to the pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one's job values (Locke, 1969:319). On the notion, coupled with a few other definitions, I discussed the context in which the environment Asean teachers are working. There are subjective situations. In Brunei, I presumed, there is no such thing as an issue of satisfaction with regards to pay and work environment. However, I was given to understand that there are things of cultural and professional in nature especially in term of sustaining the particular level of satisfaction among teachers. The school where Dr. Haji Loji is the CEO (in professional sense) is well funded. Teachers are trained and experienced. Quite a number are foreign teachers. The time I spent with the teachers was quite limited as I was rather in a hurry to catch my flight back to Kuching, happened to be the last flight on schedule. Thanks to Dr. Haji Loji and his teachers for giving me the opportunity to visit and talk to the teachers; brief but meaningful indeed.

Voice of concern- what should be the basis for teachers' quota in Malaysian schools?

How does curriculum implementation influence teachers' quota? This was the question I posed to a group of about 30 school inspectorates in Sabah when presenting a staff development lecture on Curriculum Management las Monday 18 August 2008 (1400-1600) at Kompleks Tabung Haji Kota Kinabalu. It is indeed almost insignificant to deliberate on teachers' quota in Malaysian schools based on the National Curriculum because there is no mention how schools subject are used as the determinant for teaching personnel a school should have. I was (again) mentioning the skill-based teachers' quota whereby each subject is sub-allocated into various skills as coherent to the learning objectives set for the students. In language subjects, at least five skills ought to be looked into: writing, spelling, grammar, composition and oral skill. The allocation of teachers based on these will allow a school to have five teachers for English Language for lower primary (year 1-3). This has been practised in a number of countries, developing and developed.

At last the government is aware of what is going on with oil prices globally!

Below is an excerpt regarding the government views of oil prices globally. Two weeks ago, I had reckoned it would be fair for the government to review fuel prices based on the fluctuating prices of oil, hinting that it would be practical to lower fuel price as well .

_________

PUTRAJAYA (2 August 2008): Petrol price will be reviewed monthly from Sept 1 based on the average global market price and subsidy will be fixed at RM0.30sen a litre, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

The Government assured Malaysians that petrol price would not exceed RM2.70 a litre for this year. This means that although the market price for gasoline increases and the Government may have to subsidise beyond RM0.30sen a litre, the petrol price will not be raised this year.

Abdullah, in a statement issued here yesterday, said the decision was made after the fall of oil prices to US$122 per barrel on Tuesday from US$139, the highest recorded in June.

On June 5, when crude oil price was at US$125 per barrel, the Government announced the restructuring of fuel subsidies. Petrol subsidy was fixed then at RM30sen a litre and the Government said it would review petrol price from time to time.

Crude oil prices went up quite drastically on June 8 to US$139 per barrel.

Abdullah said that even when the oil price rose to US$139 per barrel, the Government maintained the petrol price although there should have been an increase of RM0.40sen per litre as it had given an assurance that there would be no further increase for the year.

Generally in the month of June, the crude oil price was at US$132 a barrel and the Government subsidised RM0.64 a litre, he said.

Earlier, after meeting with Brunei Crown Prince Pengiran Muda Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah at his office here yesterday, Abdullah confirmed that the Government would lower fuel price.

“I hope the trend of lowering fuel prices in the global market will continue so that our price at the petrol pumps will be reduced,” he told reporters.

On Wednesday, the Cabinet had mulled over the possibility of Malaysians paying less for fuel soon due to the global prices taking a tumble.

(from STAROnline, 2 August 2008)