Include prioritisation of religious teachers under proposed devolution of power to Sarawak, says Jemoreng assemblyman

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Dr Annuar Rapa’ee (right) receives the list of graduates from Juanda at the DUN media centre yesterday.

KUCHING: The proposed devolution of power on education to Sarawak should include prioritising local ‘cikgu agama’ (religious teachers) for primary and secondary schools.

Jemoreng assemblyman Datuk Dr Juanda Jaya said some decisions or policies mooted or carried out at federal level could not be implemented in Sarawak.

“Sarawak is made up of people of various races, cultures and religions – making it different from others.

“This is why local religious teachers would have a better understanding of local cultures,” he told reporters during a press conference at the DUN Complex here yesterday.

In his debate on the state budget a few days ago, Juanda voiced his desire to see cooperation forged between

the state and federal governments to ensure that vacancies for religious teachers in Sarawak would be filled by Sarawakians.

He said after the debate, he managed to gather via Facebook the names of 344 individuals who are holders of diplomas or degrees in religious studies from local and international universities.

He believed that there are still graduates in the state who have not filled in their particulars for the online poll.

This proves that there is no reason for people to have the opinion that Sarawakians are not competent in taking up jobs as religious teachers.

“My intention is to ensure our local graduates have job placements, especially when there are not many vacancies available. Yet, there are still non-Sarawakians filling up most of the vacancies here,” he observed.

He said based on hearsay, there might be about 300 vacancies for religious teachers in Sarawak.

During the April job intake this year, only 56 Sarawakians secured religious teacher posts out of the 300 who applied.

He said the teachers from Peninsular Malaysia would normally leave the state after four to five years of service.

“This is where we hope that the immediate vacancies here could be filled up by the locals,” said Juanda, who later handed the name list to Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee.

Upon receiving the list, Dr Annuar said those on it would still have to go through the normal process for job placements to fill up vacancies at school – towards reaching the 90:10 ratio (90 per cent Sarawakian teachers to 10 per cent non-Sarawakian teachers).

He added that comparatively, the number of Sarawakians teaching religious subjects at school was far less than for non-Sarawakians.

Dr Annuar who is Nangka assemblyman said the requirement for quality and competence of those on the list would not be compromised in view of the educational benefits of the future generation.