Full-time admin, part-time teaching?

Just how often do we see lawyers in a law firm, doing loads of admin or projects while spending only a small fraction of their time fighting law suits? Are professionals or specialists spending too little time doing what they are specialised or executing their respective causes?

Most teachers in Singapore would agree with the heading of this blog. Most of the time we are too "diversified" from our main purpose - teaching. Just how many teachers come into the profession because of their passion for distributing/collecting consent forms, school circulars, be involved in school publicity projects etc. If they really do love these stuffs, they are in the wrong profession!

No doubt, such diversification does give teachers a chance to explore and expand their horizons, stretch their potential limits and add some glitter to their resume or portfolios. However, all these requires much time and effort on top of their core teaching responsibilities. Shouldn't teachers concentrate on their teaching first before "volunteering" for such projects (assume they got the spare capacity and desire to stretch their limits)? Are teachers shortchanging their students, given that the "diversified" teacher has too little time and energy to plan an interesting lesson?

Back to the law firm, there exist an admin and marketing department that undertakes all the admin and other publicity projects of the firm, leaving the lawyers to focus 100% on handling their law suits. Such a (common sensical) system is applicable to schools too. However, the root of the problem is budget. Financial resources are and will always be limited. Hence welfare of teachers are dropping and that the annual exodus of teachers is always rising.

As the name "teacher" suggests, their job is to teach. That is their passion and calling. Unfortunately, the definition has evolved into one that means full-time admin, part-time teaching. Is that what teachers step into schools for?