See urges caution in recruiting Islamic Studies teachers from outside the state
KUCHING: The state government should not be too hasty in agreeing to accept non-Sarawakian Islamic religious teachers to teach in our schools.
Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How in making this call, said the interests of Sarawak should be of paramount consideration.
“We must continue to safeguard and fortify the peace and harmony amongst our Sarawak community of diversity. The persistent reports and complaints lodged against albeit pockets of religious teachers from Peninsular Malaysia, of disrupting, neglecting and negating our delicate and sensitive local socio order had caused our previous state administrations to issue cautionary statements,” he said yesterday.
See, who is state PKR vice chairman, was commenting on Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid announcement on Tuesday, that his Ministry will bring in several teachers from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah to teach Islamic Studies in Sarawak because of the insufficient number of religious teachers in the state.
Mahdzir said the lack of teachers teaching the Islamic Studies subject in Sarawak is very critical at the moment and as such, his ministry will bring in teachers from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah to teach this subject in Sarawak. According to him, the arrangement had already been agreed to by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.
See said the present state government should therefore set its priorities right, firstly to demand that the Ministry of Education puts in efforts to train more Sarawakians as religious teachers and secondly, to work with Sarawakian Islamic religious bodies to encourage more Sarawakians to take up teaching of religious classes in schools.
“The explanation that there is a shortage of Sarawakian teachers in Islamic Studies is a lame excuse and unacceptable as the ministry has not revealed as to what it has done to improve the recruitment of teachers in Islamic Studies in the last two years.”
See said he would like the Ministry of Education to clarify whether the teachers in Islamic Studies are excluded from the total number of teachers of which the federal government has promised that there will be 90:10 ratio of Sarawakian teachers teaching in Sarawak by next year, 2018.
“By last October 2016, it was revealed that 88.7 percent ofteachers in Sarawak are Sarawakians. However, it appears that there remains a substantial number of non-Sarawakian teachers teaching various subjects in Sarawak.How many teachers in Islamic Studies do we require in Sarawak presently, and how many of those teachers are Sarawakians?”