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Placement of new teachers must focus on rural, urban schools

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Zulkiflee Sebli

KUCHING: The Sarawak Bumiputera Teachers’ Union (KGBS) hopes that the placement of new teachers in Sarawak will eventually overcome the issue of teacher shortage by placing the educators fairly in both rural and urban schools.

Its president Zulkiflee Sebli said schools in the rural and urban areas face a lack of teachers.

“KGBS hopes that the placement of 50 per cent of 1,500 new teachers will not only be placed in rural schools but in urban schools as well.

“Schools in the city should be given emphasis as the lack of teachers in the city is more due to the retirement of teachers while some have passed away.

“For instance, there is a school where the teacher had passed away three years ago and which has had no replacement since then. Thus, such a situation adds a burden on the teachers who have to bear the additional work,” he said.

Zulkiflee was responding to the recent announcement by the Ministry of Education (MoE) that 1,500 vacancies will be filled in Sarawak before the new school session begins in March.

At the same time, he hoped MoE will be able to fill the available vacancies by 100 per cent.

“We also hope that this effort is properly implemented by the MoE with monitoring from the Education Minister herself.

“We don’t want to hear any complaints about teachers having to bear the burden of the duties of their former colleagues who have retired or transferred to other schools,” he said.

The MoE, he said, can act by looking more closely at schools that are experiencing a critical shortage of teachers, so that the new placements for the next school session are more transparent.

“In other words, make sure the new teachers meet the needs of each school by not merely dumping teachers randomly at schools,” he added.

On a related note, he was grateful that the ministry is making a serious effort in addressing and solving the long-standing problem of teacher shortage.

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