Institutes underused due to oversupply of teachers
EXCESS: Fewer training sessions at institutes, says deputy minister
THERE is an excess of new teachers who are waiting to be posted to schools nationwide, the Education Ministry said.
Deputy Minister II Senator Datuk Chong Sin Woon said the oversupply had caused many teachers’ training institutes to be underused.
“There have been fewer training sessions at the institutes compared with previous years,” he said at Parliament lobby yesterday.
Chong said the situation had prompted the ministry to turn some of the institutes into polytechnics and vocational colleges.
He said the ministry would soon discuss with executive councillors in charge of education on the conversion.
Chong said this in response to a report that quoted Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem as saying that he would not allow the conversion of the facilities in Sarawak.
The Sarawak Teachers’ Training Institute in Miri and Rajang Teachers’ Training Institute in Bintangor have reportedly been identified for conversion into polytechnics, pending the ministry’s approval.
On another matter, Chong said the ministry’s Literacy and Numeracy Screening (Linus) 2.0 2016 programme had shown improvement in English literacy among urban and rural students.
He said data collected had shown that literacy rates among urban and rural students were at 89.19 per cent and 84.37 per cent, respectively.
He said there was a disparity between rural and urban areas, but the ministry was committed to reducing the education divide as outlined in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025.
He said Linus was being improved through several ways, including introducing the Professional Upskilling of English Language Teachers.
“This is to raise teachers’ proficiency in English to the minimum level required,” he said in reply to a question from Budiman Mohd Zohdi (Barisan Nasional — Sungai Besar) during a question-and-answer session.
Budiman had asked what had been done to bridge the gap between rural and urban students in terms of English literacy.
Chong said the implementation of the Highly Immersive Programme had been extended to improve English proficiency of students through increased exposure.