KUCHING: It is time for Sarawak to demand for the devolution of autonomy in education after 222 teachers failed to report for duty or refused to serve in the state.
Datuk Jonathan Chai, President of the Association of Boards of Management for Aided Chinese Primary Schools in Kuching, Samarahan said while action should be taken against these teachers, it is also time for Sarawak to run its own educational system.
“We know better about the needs and unresolved problems in this sector, in particular, we could make sure that sufficient resources and trained teachers would be provided to cater to the needs of all the schools in Sarawak,” he said.
Speaking to the New Sarawak Tribune, Chai said there has been an acute shortage of teachers in the schools in rural areas especially those specialised in English, Mathematics and Science.
The Ministry of Education, he said, needs to address and resolve these problems soonest so that the learning process of the students in those affected schools would not be unduly disrupted.
Otherwise the gap of academic standards between students in the urban and those in rural areas will grow wider.
He stressed that all these issues must be addressed holistically as quality education for the youths and future generations will be a prerequisite for Sarawak to achieve the goals of sustainable economic development and becoming a developed state and high income economy by 2030.
He was commenting on the total of 222 of the 3,227 one-off, specially recruited teachers given placements in Sarawak failing to report or rejecting the offer as of Sept 30 last year.
The Ministry of Education, through a response on parliament’s website, informed that the 3,227 “one-off” teachers included 2,621 permanent teachers and 606 teachers appointed under Contract of Services (CoS) placed in Sarawak.
Chai said while he agreed that action should be taken against teachers who refused to serve in Sarawak, there should be some exceptional grounds or unique personal circumstances such as looking after sick family members.
Otherwise, he stressed that there is no excuse for them not to report for duty to serve in Sarawak.
“When they applied to join the career in teaching (government schools) or civil service, they should have known that they would end up in any part of the country, even in a place not to their liking,” he said.
Chai said being a teacher is quite like an army or police personnel who must be ready to be posted to serve in any part of the country and that an extra sense of commitment is expected from such honourable professions.
On that note, he was grateful and thankful for those teachers who volunteered to teach in remote interior areas in Sarawak where basic amenities are not available or lacking.
However, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) president Bobby William felt that the Ministry of Education should not blame the new teachers who failed to report for duty, saying they could have their own reasons for not accepting, such as preferring to serve in their home state.
“Even if they come, they will not give their best and may ask to be transferred back to their home state after a few months or a year in Sarawak,” Bobby told Malay Mail recently.
“In the end, the students will suffer because of the lack of dedication of these teachers, especially those in the rural schools” he said.
The Ministry of Education, he said, should instead give priority to Sarawakians whose applications to be trained as teachers were not successful in the past. He also urged the ministry to fill the vacancies left by teachers from West Malaysia with local applicants or take in university graduates as temporary teachers as a short-term measure, to address the shortage of teachers in Sarawak.
