Tuesday May 17, 2011

NUTP: Many unhappy because they were left out

KUCHING: The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) said many teachers were unhappy at being left out of the promotion opportunities announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Its secretary-general Lok Yim Pheng said one of the grouses was that headmasters in primary schools with low enrolment remained at DGA32 while senior assistants at cluster primary schools would be upgraded to DGA34 from DGA32.

“This means that headmasters in primary schools with low enrolment will have a lower salary scheme than the senior assistants in cluster schools,” she said.

There are about 2,000 schools with low enrolment nationwide, mostly in Sabah and Sarawak.

The announcement yesterday prompted all 24 teachers unions and representatives of headmasters associations to hold an emergency meeting here last night.

Sarawak Teachers Union president William Ghani Bina said he received many SMSes from disgruntled teachers and headmasters from primary schools as they were left out of promotion opportunities.

“Generally, we welcome the scheme but the Government should look at a scheme that will benefit both primary and secondary school teachers, headmasters and principals,” he said.

He said non-graduate teachers in primary schools should not be sidelined as they were the basic manpower in the education system.

Joint Teachers Unions Committee chairman Jemale Paiman said teachers were “very disappointed and depressed” because the promotion scheme and Guru Wibawa and Pendeta Guru concept were nothing new.

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