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Kullin Djayang
SIBU (May 31): Sarawak Teachers Union (STU) has reiterated its call for the Education Ministry (MoE) to take serious note of the shortage of teachers in the state.
According to union president Kullin Djayang, Sarawak is currently short of 3,006 teachers and this number is increasing as many of those in service will soon reach the mandatory retirement age.
“In this regard, STU suggests prioritising the recruitment of Sarawakians to teach in Sarawak as among the measures to address the shortage of teachers, as well as to help reduce the existing teachers’ workload.
“The issue of teacher shortage in Sarawak is a major problem in the education sector in this state. It is one of the reasons why Sarawak lags behind other states in Malaysia in terms of education.
“Many major and important subjects do not have enough teachers, especially the primary schools in the rural and interior areas. That said, lack of teachers for some subjects is also happening in secondary schools.
“Among the subjects where there is a critical shortage of teachers are Moral Education, Islamic Studies, Visual Arts, Physical Education, Designs and Life Skills.
“We also lack pre-school teachers.
“Since the implementation of recruitment of 18,702 teachers in a ‘one-off’ manner by former education minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin, only 2,667 teachers have been sent to Sarawak, including 215 who declined for their own reasons,” he told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
Kullin was commenting on Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) permanent chairman Munan Laja’s appeal to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, requesting the federal government to look into three issues concerning the welfare and wellbeing of the Dayak community in Sarawak, including the lack of Iban Language teachers at school and the lack of trainees at the Institutes of Teachers Education (IPGs), which registered no intakes for the 2022 and 2023 terms.
Munan had also cited sources saying Sarawak’s current shortage of 2,100 teachers in primary schools and 26 in secondary schools. These points were stated in his speech for Sadia’s Pre-Gawai Dayak 2023 dinner here last Saturday.
On this, Kullin said: “Lack of teachers also creates a problem for the teacher, with regard to their workloads. This is because there are among the teachers, especially in large schools, teaching various subjects to offset the shortage.
“The sad thing about this is that the teachers have to teach subjects that are not their majors, in addition to them having to undertake other duties such as those under extra-curricular activities.
“This is burdensome for them.”
Compounding the situation, added Kullin, was the increasing number of online data fillings amidst poor Internet coverage.
“This is very ‘torturing’ to the teachers, especially those in the rural and interior areas.
“This is why the trend of choosing to retire early among teachers is prevalent these days.”
STU, said Kullin, also reiterated its hope for the MoE to prioritise the recruitment of Sarawakians to teach in the state to counter the cases where non-Sarawakian teachers wanting to be stationed in their home states.
“If too many teachers from other states are sent to Sarawak, then this problem would never be resolved,” he stressed.
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