KUCHING: Education Director-General Azman Adnan has assured that the shortage of about 2,000 teachers in Sarawak will be addressed periodically beginning next month.
He said new appointments would then be made by the Ministry of Education (MoE).
“By April, 6,000 teachers will be brought in through a Contract of Service (COS) intake for the whole country and their placements will be announced later.
“So, the remaining shortage of teachers will be addressed by continuing recruitment and placement from time to time,” he said.
He said this to reporters after launching the Program Gerakan Massa: #terimakasihcikgu 2024 at the Hikmah Exchange Event Centre (HEEC) here on Saturday.
Having said that he conceded that there are rejections of placements for varying reasons.
“However, the number may not be many,” he said.
In this regard, he informed that MoE will remain committed to ensuring teachers are placed not only in Sarawak but also throughout the country to address the shortage issue.
“This is important because sufficiency of teachers will help our children in the teaching and learning process.
“We also cooperate with the Education Service Commission to ensure this issue is well handled,” he explained.
He said this issue has been receiving attention with MoE taking the initiative to appoint 18,792 new teachers throughout the country last year.
“Meanwhile, in the context of Sarawak, until December last year, about 1,100 new teachers had been placed in the state, consisting of graduates from public and private universities,” he said.
Beginning last year to March this year, 2,577 teachers have been placed in Sarawak.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh said out of this number, 1,247 teachers were placed in primary schools while 1,330 teachers were placed in secondary schools, consisting of graduates born in Sarawak.
