Youth body opposes closure of IPG campuses

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Youth Alliance (Gema) wants to know whether the government can achieve its 90% Sabahan school teacher goal in Sabah with a statewide closure of the Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) campuses.

In strongly opposing the closure of the campuses in Sabah, its chairman Jamain Sarudin said the existence of IPG Tawau, IPG Keningau and IPG Gaya campuses were already under the closure threat.

“Can the government fulfill its promises on the 90% of Sabahan teachers in the next three years with the absence of solid teacher training colleges so Sabahans can be trained to be educators in Sabah itself?” he asked at a press conference here yesterday.

“In 2015, we have raised a memorandum to the Sabah State Education Department on the shortage of teachers from Sabah and we do not want the IPG to be sut down,” added Jamain.

The closure of IPG campuses in Sabah received numerous objections from the state Barisan Nasional and opposition leaders, he said.

Recently, Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) vice president Junz Wong urged the state government to clarify whether IPG Keningau was going to be closed down.

He urged the state government to reveal the real reason behind the gradual closure of IPGs even though Sabah needs to train more teachers to replace the 14,000 Peninsular Malaysia teachers still teaching in Sabah.