Education Department: Many teachers retired this year, three reasons contributed to teacher shortage in SJKC

Exclusive report by Yee Pei Nee
China Press, June 30, 2015

Kuala Lumpur, June 29 – Three major contributing factors have aggravated problem on the shortage of teachers in Chinese primary schools (SJKCs), according to the Ministry of Education, one of which is the increased number of retired teachers this year, and the surged of students in micro SJKCs after relocating and the new policy which required new teachers from Sarawak to return and teach in the state upon graduation.

An official of the Ministry of Education who is in charge of SJKCs told China Press that there were many teachers in SJKCs retired or opted for early retirement this year which had aggravated the situation.

“Many teachers have opted for early retirement due to increasing pressure of workloads,” she said.

Teachers moved back to Sarawak

In addition, she said, in recent years many micro or small size schools in rural areas had relocated to big cities, the number of students had thus increased drastically, some schools recorded acute student population increased due to the mushrooming of new housing estates in the vicinity.

“In fact, originally the micro schools had been allocated with one headmaster and a few teachers,” she said.
She said the school should have applied to the Ministry of Education for upgrading and also for increasing of classes; however, some of these schools had increased the number of classes without the approval from the ministry, and also as the schools concerned had yet to be upgraded, they were not eligible to apply for more teaching staff, all these factors had contributed to the shortage of teachers in the schools.

She also revealed that the Ministry of Education had received instruction not to send teachers from Sarawak to teach in other states but to retain them in Sarawak. Coincidentally, this year most of the fresh graduates from the teachers training institutes were from Sarawak (more than hundred).

“According to the data, next year many of the new graduates are also from Sarawak, they are unable to serve in west Malaysia or Sabah; this is the instruction given to us, we have no choice but to obey,” she added.

374 temporary teacher appointment letters issued according to the application before May

Sources from Ministry of Education clarified that the ministry had issued the temporary teacher appointment letters in accordance with the number given to the ministry by the SJKCs. As at May 2 this year, it had issued a total of 374 appointment letters, but the problem of shortage of teachers cropped up again after that.

Sources said among the 374 letters of appointment issued only 200 had been utilized so far, but some SJKCs were complaining about not having enough teachers, it could be because of the category of the school that had limited the allocation of teachers.

It is understood that Deputy Minister of Education Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching had in several occasions requested the Secretary-general of Education to increase the number of appointment letter, but the Ministry of Education had asked for more evidence and information before it could issue more permits for temporary teachers.

“Ministry of Education understands that the SJKCs is facing with the problem of teacher shortage, but the fresh graduates of the teachers training institutions are not enough to cope with the demands, the ministry could only allocate the teacher according to the number of classes and student population of that particular school,” one source said.

Original Source:
教局：今年最多教師退休 3原因華小教師不足