Applicants getting choosy
Chong: Some prefer to be teachers in only certain subjects
GEORGE TOWN: The drop in the number of applicants for teachers training is due to several reasons, including some who did not meet standard entry requirements into training colleges, says Datuk Chong Sin Woon.
The Deputy Education Minister said many of the applicants also applied to take up only certain subjects.
“They did not want to try out new curriculum such as teaching of disabled persons, which has already been introduced in schools,” he said at the opening of the National Headmasters Association’s Education Conference 2017 here yesterday.
Chong said the ministry might re- introduce Post Graduate Teaching Courses, which was discontinued a few years ago, if there was any shortage of teachers after next year.
He assured that there would not be a shortage of teachers in schools nationwide with 319 temporary teachers deployed, starting Oct 23.
Earlier, after the opening of a mushroom growing programme at Kampung Padang in Lahar Kepar, Kepala Batas, Chong said applications for teachers training had dropped slightly this year, and that the ministry was looking into ways to promote the profession.
On bullying cases, he said bullies who were kicked out of school would still have other education options, including military school.
Chong said when students were expelled from their schools for being involved in bullying, they would not end up as dropouts.
“They can apply to enter another school and if these students cannot fit into normal schools, they can opt for nature or military schools,” he said.
“There is a saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child, so the responsibility is with all of us,” he said.
Chong said a student would only be dismissed for bullying if the case was very serious and there was no other alternative.
“The issue of bullying has many elements – physical, emotional, family background and the local community.
“Nearly all the videos on bullying in schools that were circulated this year took place more than two years ago,” he said.
Chong said the ministry carried out prompt checks on such videos and found that nearly all were past incidents, including a few which occurred in Thai schools.
Also present at the conference were Penang MCA chief Datuk Tan Teik Cheng and organising secretary Dr Tan Chuan Hong.