THE shortage of teachers, though affecting all kinds of national schools including Chinese and Tamil schools, is a temporary problem.
Short-, medium- and long-term strategies have been put in place to overcome the issue, said Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek.
She said the measures include the appointment of contract of service teachers, and teachers with a postgraduate diploma in education and bachelor of teaching. The recruitment of teachers, she added, is continuously done to fill vacancies in all types of schools for all subject options, including Chinese and Tamil Languages.
The ministry, she said in a statement on Nov 17, has reviewed the option list for Chinese language teachers in all schools.
“The projection process for future teachers is carried out carefully based on verified data and through engagement sessions with stakeholders.
“This intervention is important to ensure that only official and accurate data is used as a reference related to teacher shortage projections to avoid confusion in the community,” she said.
The ministry, together with the Education Services Commission (SPP), always takes proactive measures to ensure that teacher shortages in all types of schools can be solved, she added. The ministry, said Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying, will also review how the projection for teacher training is calculated to ensure that there is no shortage of talents, particularly for vernacular languages.
Discussions on the projection process to address the need for Chinese and Tamil option teachers are ongoing, she said in a statement on Nov 16.
She said data from the ministry’s system as of June 30 showed an excess of 2,376 Chinese language option teachers and an excess of 773 Tamil language option teachers.
But in the other subjects, Chinese schools are short of 1,300 teachers, while Tamil schools need 155 teachers.
“The ministry’s statistical formula and teacher projections do not reflect the real situation. This has resulted in incorrect system data and Institute of Teacher Education’s (IPGM) admission quotas,” she said, adding that in the last three months, the re-tagging of Chinese and Tamil Language teachers were conducted.
“As of Sept 29, the number of Chinese Language option teachers at Chinese schools has been reduced from an excess of 2,376 to 540; while the number of Tamil language option teachers at Tamil schools has also been reduced from an excess of 773 to 308,” she said.
She said although there are currently hundreds of optional Chinese and Tamil teachers, the ministry needs to take into account the estimated vacancies due to forced retirement and optional retirement, teachers who are in the pool, teachers on study leave, teachers moving to departments and other bodies under the ministry and teachers who resigned.
Both subjects must be filled within five years of the teacher position being vacant, she added.
Schools across the country, according to the NUTP in an earlier report, were experiencing a shortage of over 20,000 teachers.
