Sempurai Petrus Ngelai
KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Youth wing lauded the 90:10 Initiative by Sarawak Education Department to achieve the posting ratio of nine local teachers to one from outside in the next three years.
Its deputy youth chief Sempurai Petrus Ngelai said such effort was timely and in line with the devolution of powers pursued by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem for Sarawak.
“We hope the minister entrusted with education in the state will seriously consider the unemployed graduates in any field in the state and retrain them in local teachers training colleges to fill up the vacuum in or before 2018.
“This not only helps to increase the marketability of the current unemployed graduates but also helps to reduce the number of unemployed graduates who have difficulty in getting jobs in the state,” he said.
Sempurai also hoped that focus would be given to UniRazak graduates deprived of teaching posts due to a government policy as highlighted by party president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing earlier this year.
Based on press reports, a policy restricting government schools to employ only graduates from public universities and teachers training institutes since 2010 had prevented many Bachelor of Education graduates of private universities and colleges from teaching at public schools.
“Focus should be given to local graduates from private colleges especially those unemployed UniRazak graduates to fill up
the shortage. Of course, in achieving those goals we definitely cannot compromise on quality,” Sempurai said.
Meanwhile, PRS Youth publicity chief Bit Surang said Sarawak does not lack graduates who can replace teachers who want to go back to the Peninsula.
“They will have better motivation than those reluctant ‘trained’ teachers from Malaya,” stressed Bit.
“The placement of the teachers must also be based on locality so as to make sure the teachers are from the particular area where the school is located. We must not further delay this initiative as the Prime Minister has put a target of 2016,” he said.
On a related matter, he said full support must be given to Adenan’s efforts to bring English back into our education system particularly as the medium of instruction in schools in Sarawak.
“For the record, I have just completed the survey conducted by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) on the importance of being proficient in the English language. I hope other Malaysians also can participate in the survey.
“English is very important. It’s a global language. Its importance cannot be denied,” he said.