Tertiary Education Opportunities for In-Service Teachers

Tertiary education referred to third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, universitypreparatory school. Higher education is taken to conclude undergraduate and postgraduate education, while vocational education and training beyond secondary education is known as further education in the United Kingdom, or continuing education in the United States. In-service training means the teachers have opportunities as a part of the regular teaching programme without leaving schools particularly for training purposes. This is because in-service training requires more expertise and practical knowledge than pre-service training, as incumbent teachers have their own interests and needs based on their experiences. According to Cooper (2008), the terms staff development, in-service training, and professional development are often used interchangeably ; which have the objective of updating in-service teachers knowledge and skills as well as that bring about improvement in the teaching learning process. Whatever the term and subsequently the definition, there is no denying that in-service teacher training (INSETT) is an integral component of continuous teacher professional development (TPD) and that it will remain so for the years to come. Tertiary education enables in-service teachers to grow professionally. Growing professionally means those teachers can contribute back to their community. All the knowledge obtained in the process of advance learning, can be shared among the colleagues and the community around. This kind of contribution is a non-profit mission whereas teachers are not only regarded themselves as a teacher, more importantly, they set themselves as role models professionally.

Generally, the higher people being educate, the more prospect of he or she being skilful and knowledgeable. Tertiary education for sure contributes the inservice teachers of gaining knowledge. In term of advancing their skills in teaching, in-service teachers not only inquired those from the lectures given, but also through exchanging ideas and experiences shared among others who are teaching in various places nationwide. The living cost nowadays is still one of the main topics discussed by the Malaysians. Tertiary education is some kind of promising cheque entitled the inservice teachers of pay rise. The standard of living means people need more income to survive. Besides the price hike of most daily needs, we do have to pay some extra taxes of service. All these burden not only the civil servants but also all folk of life in Malaysia. All the opportunities to gain knowledge and skills for in-service teachers must be grabbed and teachers have to be very grateful to the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for offering several programmes annually. Hence, the in-service teachers are able to require more expertise and practical knowledge based on their own interests and needs in becoming effective teachers when they graduate. Ultimately, the vision of making Malaysia a centre of educational excellence will be realised in the future.