By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, May 10: The Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) has urged the Ministry of Education (MOE) to increase teacher trainee intake for four Institutes of Teacher Education (IPGs) in the State while calling for the State government to relax the 90:10 ratio of local teachers.
The Union’s president Adam Prakash Abdullah said the IPGs in the State located in Kuching, Kota Samarahan, Bintangor and Miri can only produce about 300 trained teachers annually and this is not enough to fill the vacancies in primary schools in Sarawak.
“Therefore, STU hopes that the shortage of 3,000 teachers in the State as mentioned by the State Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong recently, can be addressed by bringing in trained teachers from Peninsular Malaysia temporarily so that the students can be taught by trained educators.
“Meanwhile, we also hope that the Sarawak government will apply to the MOE to give priority to candidates from Sarawak to be trained as teachers to fill the vacancy when fellow teachers from Peninsular Malaysia move back later,” he said in a statement today.
Adam added that while the Union appreciates the State government’s struggle in prioritising the 90:10 local teachers policy, such effort had caused the shortage of 3,000 teachers in Sarawak at present.
“Therefore, a review of the policy needs to be made so that teachers in the State do not bear the burden of work that ultimately affects their performance,” he said.
At the same time, Adam also called on the responsible authorities to obtain the list of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) graduate teachers and place them in schools if they have met the conditions of service.
He requested for the issue of teachers shortage to be prioritised by the federal and State governments so that the class sessions in schools and the home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) processes could be carried out smoothly.
He also hoped that the MOE could provide a retraining scheme for graduates in Sarawak who are ready to serve as teachers in efforts to help increase the production of trained teachers in the State and further reduce the number of unemployed graduates. — DayakDaily
