By Luo Wen Yi (translated name)

Chinese teacher shortage has always been a hot issue. The Education Ministry continues to provide suggestions however the problem is snowballing and worsen as time goes by.

Few years ago, the government has allowed The Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) holders to apply for teacher training courses. The Education Ministry will arrange UEC graduates with teacher training qualification to teach in Chinese schools. Former deputy education minister Wee Ka Siong once announced in parliament that Chinese independent high school graduates who intend to enrol into teacher training college are required to achieve three Grade A, pass basic teaching test and interview. Apart from that, the UEC holders are required to have Grade A in Bahasa Malaysia and pass the English paper in SPM to be qualified for application.

UEC graduates under the special teaching training course will have to go through special courses to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese teaching before becoming a trained teacher recognized by the Education Ministry. According to Prime Minister Najib, these UEC holders who have graduated from the teacher training course will be sent schools to teach Chinese to resolve shortage problem in the country.

Is this the best outcome to deal with the shortage of Chinese teachers? Having the Chinese independent high school graduates to be trained as Chinese teachers with their UEC qualification will only be a temporary relief to the problem. It is still not the ultimate solution for teacher shortage.

Did not walk the talk

According to relevant information, this plan has not received good respond among UEC graduates, only a few applied, as expected. The optimistic way to phrase it would be to allow UEC holders to get trained and become teachers. However, if the government recognizes UEC but still ask for SPM qualification with certain conditions, which means the recognition of UEC is not honoured after all. Or should UEC just be considered as an added bonus to the application?

As the only university that offers teacher education in the country, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) has nurtured numerous educators. In the year of 2008, UPSI has introduced Chinese language programme in order to help ease the Chinese teacher shortage. However, the deep rooted problem is yet to be solved.

Not walking the talk is the best weapon of the government. On one hand, the Education Ministry announced that it will train more Chinese teachers; on the other hand, it is actually cutting the student intake for Chinese language programme. The highest admission was merely 90 students. As for these two years, the intakes were lowered to around 20 to 30 students.

Yes, you are right. It was 20. Wasn’t the government trying to resolve teacher shortage? Or was the government trying to control the quality of Chinese teacher by limiting the quantity? Please do not tell me this is the government’s latest policy to try to cut down student intake for teacher training. What about the students who were enrolled under Pengajian Am programme? 300 students have been accepted for this programme. How is this possible to have the Form Six intake ten times higher than the Chinese language programme? May I ask if this is the best solution to Chinese teacher shortage? Can 20 teachers fill up over one thousand nationwide vacancies for Chinese teachers? The answer is absolutely clear.

China Press, 27-02-2014