Aided Chinese primary schools short of 161 teachers — Association

KUCHING: Aided Chinese primary schools in Sarawak are facing a shortage of 161 teachers, according to a 2021 survey done by the Sarawak United Association of Chinese Primary School Boards of Management.

Secretary-general of the association Jonathan Chai said the survey had revealed that these schools are particularly short of teachers for both English and Bahasa Malaysia subjects.

“Among the vacancies that need to be filled are six headmasters/headmistresses, nine assistant headmasters/ headmistresses, 71 teachers, 55 religious teachers, 11 counselling teachers, one preschool teacher and eight teachers for special education classes,” he told a news conference at the association’s premises here yesterday.

Chai urged the Ministry of Education (MoE) to take the teachers shortage seriously and if possible, fill up the vacancies in the shortest possible time.

He said while the association looked forward to the MoE solving the teacher shortage, it called on the ministry to make sure qualified and well-trained individuals are recruited to take up the posts.

According to him, some teachers have retired, resigned or have been promoted, leaving many positions vacant that have not yet been filled.

He said this situation, to a certain extent, affected the operations of the schools.

Chai also called upon the MoE to come up with a strategic plan to train teachers in a systematic manner so as to address teacher shortage nationwide once and for all.

On a separate matter, he said the association had received several complaints from Sarawakian teachers who were stationed in Peninsular Malaysia.

“These Sarawakian teachers said they had applied to return to their home state to teach, but their applications have not been approved.”

Given this, Chai appealed to the MoE to look into the matter and grant the applicants the green light so that they can return to serve their home state.