Sarawak striving to have 9 local teachers out of 10 in three year’s time through Initiative 90:10
KUCHING: Sarawak Education Department is working to reach a posting ratio of nine local teachers to one from outside the state under Initiative 90:10 by 2018.
As of September this year, the ratio in primary schools of locals to teachers from outside the state is 78:20 (20,369 locals, 5,211 from Peninsular Malaysia and 517 from Sabah and Labuan).
For secondary schools, the ratio of local teachers to those from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan is 73:25:2 (10,628 locals, 3,687 West Malaysians and 229 from Sabah and Labuan).
These figures were disclosed by Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, Minister of Welfare, Women and Family, who has been entrusted to hold a watching brief on education in the state.
“On average, we would say that the present ratio is 70:30. But the figures apply only to day schools and not special schools.
“Every year, there is a request for at least 3,000 teachers. Just for 2016, the applications to be transferred back to Peninsular Malaysia for secondary school is 1,890 and for primary schools, 2,301 but we can’t approve their applications because the state doesn’t have enough local new teachers to replace them,” she said.
She added Sarawak was now collecting data on the number of teachers applying to go back to Peninsular Malaysia and the number of new local teachers produced each year.
“We have to know the rate we can replace peninsula teachers with local ones and the progressive projection of the ratio of local teachers to peninsula ones year by year, until 2018 when the ratio must reach 90:10,” Fatimah told The Borneo Post yesterday.
To achieve the target, the state Education Department has already put up an advertisement on its website to recruit graduates majoring in education, both from public and private higher learning institutions (IPTA and IPTS).
“We also welcome those who are overseas graduates whose universities are recognised by Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).”
Fatimah added that the projection plan now must be based on realistic figures and there were details that needed to be looked into to ensure the smooth running of every school.
“First of all, primary schools and secondary schools are two different things. Then, we must be very precise with some details such as the subject option a teacher can handle.
“For example, if a Peninsular Malaysian teacher teaching Bahasa Malaysia is leaving, we can’t replace her with a teacher teaching English. The local teacher taking over must also be majoring in Bahasa Malaysia,” Fatimah explained.
In the case where the department needs to recruit graduates not majoring in education, the state government may liaise with the federal government to revive in-service training course (KPLI) which offers Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching during holidays in the four local teachers’ training institutes.
“In achieving the Initiative 90:10 we will not comprise on the quality. We will not do it at the expense of compromising the quality of our teachers as well as our education standard,” Fatimah stressed.
She said outstanding results, achieving six credits and interest in the profession would still be required recruiting new teachers despite the urgent need for a large number of teachers.
Initiative 90:10 came about following the devolution of power in five areas – education, works, agriculture, welfare and housing.
“The Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem) saw a need for devolution of power in these areas. And we all support him.
“We as the locals know the needs in the state better. Given the power to make decision, we can make instant and sound decisions based on the needs,” Fatimah stressed.