From Gold Stars To Gold Jewellery: How Far Is Too Far For Teacher's Day?

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Teacher’s Day has come and gone, but the question of whether parents should be giving teachers expensive gifts still lingers in the minds of many parents.

Threads user @afiqammarr posed the question online and shared his worry that the culture of giving or competing to give teachers expensive gifts on Teacher’s Day will encourage student favouritism in schools.

He shared that in his line of work, he has to declare hampers and return the gifts to the sender. In another post, he acknowledged that teachers should be appreciated, but hoped people would understand why this practice can be harmful. He implied that he had gone through the trauma as a child who was not the teacher’s favourite.

His question divided opinions, with some defending the practice. A netizen who claimed to be a teacher claimed that expensive gifts did not make them treat their students unfairly. Meanwhile, another person said they will still discipline or scold misbehaving students even if they received expensive gifts from the parents of said students.

However, not everyone is convinced. One person pointed out that students whose parents are involved in the Parent-Teacher Association are already treated differently from their peers. What more when expensive gifts are involved?

On the other hand, parents voiced similar worries and expressed how stressed they feel when they see other parents giving their child’s teachers expensive gifts. Parents find themselves caught in a cycle of comparison, where a genuine act of gratitude is reduced to a social obligation rather than a meaningful gift.

There were also questions about how gifting came to this. A Threads user said it was the norm to give teachers simple gifts such as a pen, chocolates, and a card instead of jewellery from Poh Kong, Wah Chan, or Habib.

Another person said this gifting culture may promote competition among students, and make students from poorer families feel worse. Teachers may also not realise that they develop a soft spot for certain students.

Since public school teachers are considered government servants, they cannot accept gifts under Subregulation 8(1) of P.U. (A) 395/1993 [Paragraph 6 – MyPPSM Ceraian UP.7.2.5]. This is to prevent conflicts of interest, external influence, or perception of bias in performing their official duties.

Any gift acceptance from a stakeholder is considered a violation of the code of conduct under Section 165 of the Penal Code.

According to SPRM, gifts that exceed RM500 must be reported to the Head of Department for approval. However, if the value is less than RM100, there’s no requirement to report it to the Head of Department, but it’s still recommended to report it for approval.

In short, if you don’t want to give your child’s teacher a headache and prevent issues from cropping up, keep gifts simple and reasonable.

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