Datuk Seri Panglima Mohd Shafie Apdal
KOTA KINABALU (July 8): Two hundred and ninety-two Sabahan teachers are qualified to be hired under the Contract of Service scheme but less than 40 were engaged this year in spite of the dire need for teaching staff in Sabah.
Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Panglima Mohd Shafie Apdal wants the federal government to address this problem by hiring these Sabahan teachers and said the process would be less costly compared to transferring teachers from the Peninsula to this state.
Highlighting Sabah’s continued state of neglect by the government ranging from infrastructure to education and healthcare, he said the shortage of teachers in the state had reached a critical stage.
Shafie said there are also hundreds of dilapidated schools in Sabah which deprive schoolchildren from getting equal access to education as their counterparts in the other states.
This state of neglect has even extended to Sabahan teachers who deserve to be given
employment opportunities.
“There is no reason why these teachers should not be hired because it solves the hassle of
having to transfer teachers from other states to Sabah, which basically incurs higher cost.
“Furthermore, the government has already promised to support the ratio of local teachers to non-Sabahan teachers at 90:10 in this state.
“It is a great shame that even in matters concerning education the government has failed to give serious attention to Sabah. They simply do not listen to the problems that the people constantly have to suffer through.
“For the sake of the future of children in Sabah, settle this problem once and for all. We are building a nation. Why should Sabahans not get the same treatment as Malaysians in the Peninsula? Are we not Malaysians too?” he said in a statement here on Friday while adding that the matter would be raised in the coming parliamentary session this month.
During a Zoom meeting with Shafie on Thursday night, the teachers expressed their plight and disappointment after an announcement on May 28 this year revealed that nearly all of them failed to be hired under the Contract of Service scheme.
Prior to the announcement, Senior Minister of Education Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin had said that there were 2,400 vacancies for contract teachers who applied in 2021.