KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry has expanded the recruitment process for teachers to include high-potential graduates from private universities and overseas institutions in a bid to address teacher shortages in government schools.
Its minister, Fadhlina Sidek, said this was among the short- and medium-term measures implemented to recruit more potential candidates as teachers.
She said the ministry has strengthened its collaboration with the Education Service Commission (ESC), the Public Service Department and the Finance Ministry to tackle the issue of teacher shortages.
"Meanwhile, graduates without educational qualifications who are appointed on a contract of service (CoS) basis will undergo a one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at the Teachers Education Institute.
"Starting this year, there was also a full-time Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme for graduates without educational backgrounds," she said during minister's question time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Fadhlina said this in response to Chiew Choon Man (PH-Miri) who enquired about the measures taken by the ministry to address the long-standing issue of teacher shortages in Sarawak and the latest developments on efforts to resolve the matter.
As part of long-term measures, she said the ministry was recruiting teacher candidates for the Pre-Service Bachelor's Degree in Teaching Programme from Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) and Matriculation graduates in specific fields required for primary school teaching, starting this year.
She also said the ministry has established the Teacher Recruitment and Placement Committee to identify changes in policies, curricula, programmes and enrolments that impact teacher needs, ensuring a balanced approach to recruitment and placement.
Additionally, she noted that the ministry has successfully placed 13,749 new teachers, including permanent appointments and CoS appointments, across primary and secondary schools nationwide.
Of this total, 1,697 new teachers were placed in Sarawak, one of the states receiving the highest number of new teachers.
"As of November this year, Sarawak has 41,125 teachers out of 43,334 positions, leaving 2,209 vacancies, with a teacher placement rate of 94.9 per cent," she said.
To further address Sarawak's teacher shortage, the ESC has approved the ministry's proposal for a special recruitment initiative in Sarawak for 2024, she said.
"This initiative is open to both education and non-education graduates.
"The ESC recently announced the results of the 2024 Open Market Teacher Recruitment and Sarawak Special Recruitment on Dec 11, 2024, with a total of 7,645 candidates offered appointments, of which 1,372 are assigned to Sarawak.
"The ministry will allocate these teachers to schools to fill existing vacancies.
"Through these efforts, the ministry has reduced teacher vacancies in Sarawak to 837, increasing the teacher placement rate to 98.06 per cent.
"The ministry will continue striving to address teacher shortages periodically, with priority given to Sarawak-born teachers for placement in their home state, based on vacancies and option requirements," said Fadhlina.