National and Chinese schools face teacher shortage
NATIONAL and Chinese vernacular schools are facing a teacher shortage, according to Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, Sin Chew Daily reported.
He said statistics showed that the shortage was about 3% to 4% with those in national schools exceeding the Chinese vernacular schools by a small fraction.
But he pointed out that the number of Chinese applying for teacher training was 10 times less than that of other races, which could worsen the problem if not addressed.
“I understand that the Chinese community is concerned about this issue and want it to be solved immediately. I admit it will be very difficult,” he said at an event in Klang.
Dr Mah said the ministry tries to recruit around 1,000 teachers specifically for Chinese schools each year but the vacancies are never filled up.
It was reported that in 2018, there were 1,020 places for teacher training for Chinese schools but only 424 were taken.
Last year, only 1,054 from 1,460 vacancies were filled.
> A court in Sichuan, China, ordered all owners of an apartment complex to pay for damages after a metal ball fell out of one of the units and killed a baby in a pram four years ago, China Press reported.
It was reported that in November 2016, a mother with the surname Lee was pushing her baby in a pram along a street in Suining city.
A Baoding ball, known commonly as a Chinese health ball, fell out from nowhere and landed on the pram, killing the baby.
In spite of the repeated pleas by Lee, no one owned up to the incident.
After a lengthy investigation, police failed to identify the culprit but had determined the apartment complex in which the ball had fallen out.
The judge ruled on Aug 24 that all the apartment owners in the complex were liable to each pay 3,000 yuan (RM1,819) in damages to Lee.
The amount was decided after considering the number of apartment units in the building and that Lee was determined to have suffered 792,488 yuan (RM480,588) in financial loss resulting from the incident.