Sunday January 20, 2013

Most teaching vacancies in Sarawak snapped up by locals

KUCHING: The shortage of teachers in Sarawak these days is not severe as before, said state Education director, Abdillah Adam.

Abdillah told a press conference here yesterday that locals were snapping up most teaching vacancies.

In the past, he said, shortages were mainly due to the large number of vacancies filled up by teachers from Peninsular Malaysia.

“Of course there are still vacan- cies and we still depend on teachers from Peninsular Malaysia, but the problem (of shortage) is not much of a problem any more. I mean, say, if suddenly there is a vacancy for a Physics teacher, and there isn’t any local teacher available, then we must get one from elsewhere,” Abdillah said, following the closing of a school-leavers’ seminar.

He said this year there was a shortage of science teachers for secondary schools, and religious teachers for both primary and secondary schools.

On the willingness of Peninsular Malaysian teachers to teach in Sarawak’s rural areas, Abdillah said trainee teachers were better informed of their responsibilities including transfers.

“They are better prepared unlike last time. Psychologically, they are more ready to accept transfers to rural areas.”

On a related matter, Abdillah told the school-leavers that they had to think long-term when deciding what university courses to take.

“In Sarawak, there is the renewable energy corridor, which means that the job market will have high demand for engineers and information and technology based experts. I urge you to consider jobs in these fields,” Abdillah said in his speech earlier on.

He also cited careers in law, medicine and public administration as being “consistently” in demand.

“But things do change. Six or seven years ago, there was a shortage of Chemistry teachers but now there might be an excess.”

The seminar was attended by about 100 school-leavers from here.

News

Sunday January 20, 2013

Most teaching vacancies in Sarawak snapped up by locals