Harden speaking to the media. – Photo by Muhamad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING (March 8): Teachers who do not report for duty or refuse to serve in Sarawak should have action taken against them, said the state Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development, Datuk Francis Harden Hollis.
He said this is because as civil servants, they should be aware of the set guidelines.
“When they apply to become a teacher or trained as a teacher, there are always guidelines or conditions that need to be fulfilled.
“So if you don’t fulfil the conditions and suddenly refused, you have to deal with the Ministry of Education, to tackle the penalty (as) you’re supposed to serve the ministry and you don’t fulfil the agreement and understanding,” he said when met after the opening ceremony of the 3rd BIMP-EAGA TVET Conference 2023 here today.
He said this when asked to comment about the 222 of 3,227 teachers who were recruited on a “one-off” basis but did not report for duty or refused the service placement in Sarawak.
The Ministry of Education, through a verbal response on the Parliament’s website, informed that the 3,227 “one-off” teachers included 2,621 permanent teachers and 606 teachers appointed under Contract of Services (CoS) placed in Sarawak.
Meanwhile, on the priority of hiring teachers from among Sarawakians to serve in their own state, Harden said if there are qualified people, they can fill the vacancies.
“We always discuss this matter and we will work to meet the 90:10 ratio. We are still working on that. We still do not have enough qualified teachers,” he said.