KUCHING: Teacher shortages in Sarawak’s secondary schools are currently at a minimum level following the placements of new teachers across the state this year.
Sarawak State Education Department (JPNS) director Datuk Dr Azhar Ahmad said presently the state faces a shortage of only about 200 secondary school teachers.
“In terms of teaching positions throughout Sarawak, we need about 41, 000 teachers at both secondary and primary levels.
“At present, the shortage at the secondary school level is very minimal, of less than 200 teachers due to recent placements of teachers facilitated by the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MoE) nationwide,” he said.
He said this during an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune and its sister paper, Suara Sarawak at the JPNS office here recently.
However, he said there is still a shortage of 1,000 teachers at the primary school level.
Dr Azhar explained that the challenge of teacher shortage persists due to various factors, including mandatory retirement and voluntary retirement.
“Nevertheless, efforts to address this issue are ongoing, and MoE is fully informed of the situation.
“Hence, we will continue to urge them to prioritise Sarawak,” he said.
He also informed that Sarawak received two rounds of new teacher placements this year, totalling nearly 2,000 individuals.
“At the beginning of the year, we welcomed over 1,100 teachers, while in early April, we received over 600 teachers, primarily designated for primary schools,” he said.
Dr Azhar added that Sarawak has a total of 1,460 schools across the state, 194 being secondary schools and 1,266 being primary schools.
Meanwhile, until last December, approximately 1,100 new teachers were placed in the state, consisting of graduates from public and private universities.
Last month, Education director-general Azman Adnan said a total of 6,000 new teachers will be posted nationwide this month.
He also said the postings would alleviate the shortage of school teachers, including in Sarawak.
Meanwhile, on April 17, MoE said 6,034 new contract teachers have been placed in schools nationwide starting April 15.
About 1,858 teachers were placed in secondary schools, while the remaining 4,176 were in primary schools.
Earlier, New Sarawak Tribune and its sister paper, Suara Sarawak paid a courtesy call to Dr Azhar.
The courtesy call was led by New Sarawak Tribune and Suara Sarawak chief executive officer (CEO), Datuk Dr Jeniri Amir.
Also present was Suara Sarawak Executive Editor Rohana Wahed.
