KUCHING: Following the government's announcement on the special one-off recruitment of 18,702 teachers, the Sarawak Teachers' Union (STU) suggested priority be given to Sarawak graduates.
Its president Adam Parkash Abdullah said the union had proposed that priority is given to Sarawak graduates to serve in the Borneo state as this would better facilitate teachers' placement to the respective schools they would be stationed at.
"STU hopes that each school in Sarawak will finally have a sufficient number of teachers with the help of the one-off recruitment drive.
"We encourage Sarawak graduates who have yet to secure a permanent job and are interested in becoming a teacher to take up this opportunity," he said in a statement today.
Adam also suggested the Education Ministry to examine the list of graduates who had been trained from tertiary institutions such as Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) and the public higher learning institutions as they have the expertise and necessary training to teach.
"STU hopes that the Education Ministry and Education Service Commission (SPP) will provide clear application guidelines to candidates to ensure that no one will be rejected from the selection (process) due to not following the right guidelines," he said.
Earlier today, Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Jidin announced the government's plan to recruit 18,702 new teachers to overcome the shortage of educators in certain subjects nationwide.
According to him, the new intake scheduled next month would involve the appointment of Grade DG41 teachers, adding that this would be a "one-off" admission to address the shortage.
Radzi said Selangor, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak were four states which urgently required new teachers.
For primary schools, he said there was a significant shortage of teachers for the subjects of English, History, Special Education, Islamic Education as well as Information Technology and Communications.
As for secondary schools, Radzi said the shortage in teachers involved Bahasa Melayu, English, Special Education, Islamic Education as well as Technology and Design subjects.
Aside from graduate teachers, Radzi said the government was also be looking at hiring those who took specific subjects in universities that could cater to the shortage.