By DayakDaily Team
SIBU, Oct 7: Sarawak Minister of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development (MEITD) Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn has expressed his disappointment after the Education Service Commission (SPP) seemed to have gone back on its promise to reserve vacancies under special teacher’s recruitment programme for Sarawak exclusively for Sarawakians.
According to a report by TVS, the minister noted that SPP has decided to open the interview qualification for the recruitment programme to other parts of Malaysia.
“Now, they are saying they will interview candidates from other parts of Malaysia. Of course, authority is in their hands, and power lies with the SPP.
“We do not have the right to speak on the matter, but it feels as though they have not kept their promise,” he reportedly said during a press conference held at a prominent hotel in Sibu today.
He also said the recruitment initiative was designed to address the shortage of primary and secondary school teachers in the region.
While Sarawak does not oppose interviewing candidates from other states, he opined that it would be better if the ‘open interview’ were done at another time.
At the same time, Sagah denied rumours circulating on social media, which claimed that more candidates from other states were shortlisted for the interviews under this initiative, as the data was not yet available.
However, he noted that among applicants with degrees in education, around 300 non-Sarawakian candidates were shortlisted.
“That’s why I do not want the application to be opened to all Malaysians, and saying there are more non-Sarawak candidates is unfair. We should be consistent and reasonable.
“We don’t know how many will ultimately be chosen to fill the positions. We will only know at the end of the process,” he added.
He further expressed his hope that SPP would honour its commitment to reserve the 2,180 vacancies under the special recruitment programme exclusively for Sarawakians.
“We ask for this to be reserved exclusively for Sarawak because, from the start, we said this recruitment is for Sarawakians. We want to maintain that,” he stressed.
The initiative received over 15,000 applications, with only around 6,000 shortlisted for physical interviews, which will take place in three locations: Kuching, Sibu, and Miri. — DayakDaily
