Manyin: 8,829 teachers in Sarawak teach
subjects they were not trained in
BY CHURCHILL EDWARD ON
KUCHING (June 30): The state Education Department has
identified 8,829 non-option teachers across Sarawak, said Education, Science
and Technological Research Minister Datuk Michael Manyin Jawong.
The non-option
teachers are teaching Science (2,995), Mathematics (3,992), and English
(1,842).
Manyin explained
that a non-option teacher is one who is, for example, trained to teach Bahasa
Melayu but asked to teach Mathematics or Science due to the unavailability of
Mathematics or Science teachers in that school.
“Currently we are
addressing this issue with the RM6 million allocation given by the state for
re-skilling and upskilling of these non-option teachers,” he said in a
statement today.
Manyin said the
initiative conducted with the Education Department and local teacher education
institutes (IPGM) is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
On Sarawak’s 90:10
policy for teachers, where 90 per cent of teachers in the state must be
Sarawakian, he said it seeks to address the high turnover of teachers,
especially in rural schools.
He pointed out that
many teachers, especially non-Sarawakians, found it hard to adjust to rural
life in the state.
Manyin said Sarawak
still maintained 10 per cent non-Sarawakian teachers to have a mix.
“This will give
teachers from other states the opportunity to come to Sarawak, understand our
cultures and customs better, and subsequently strengthen integration in our
country,” he said.
“It will also allow
our students the opportunity to be taught by experienced teachers from the
other states. At the same time, we also need to expose our Sarawakian teachers
to teach in other states in order to gain more experience both in teaching and
cultural understanding outside Sarawak and become more efficient
As of April 2021,
Sarawak was short of 3,385 teachers — 1,545 in secondary schools and 1,840 in
primary schools.
Manyin said his
ministry, established in May 2017, seeks to assist and complement the Ministry
of Education (MoE) in addressing education issues in Sarawak by working closely
with the Education Department and other related agencies.
Since its inception,
his ministry and the department had looked at the overall performance trend of
Sarawak’s students in public examinations, which was found to be
unsatisfactory.
He said the most
glaring factor was the poor physical condition of schools, where 1,020 were
categorised as dilapidated and from which 415 were critically dilapidated.
The other factors
were high turnover of teachers, especially in rural schools, and mismatch of
subject options.
In addressing
dilapidated schools, Manyin said RM1 billion had been allocated for this in
contra with Sarawak’s soft loan from the federal government.
A total 148 schools
covered under this initiative are currently under various stages of
implementation.
In addition, the
Sarawak government has already repaired 66 rural schools under the Rural
Transformation Initiative (RTI) at a cost of RM21 million.
Under Projek Rakyat
(People’s Project), four schools are being improved — SK Ulu Segan (RM28.5
million), SK Maludam (RM35.765 million), SK Merpati Jepang (RM12,75 million),
and SK Kampung Penasu, Daro (RM35 million).
Sarawak also approved RM3 million for the construction
of a new Integrated Special Education Programme (PPKI) block at SMK Matang.
Manyin added Sarawak has also approved an allocation
of RM160 million for the repairs and upgrading of 60 dilapidated schools in the
northern region.
My comments:
This BN-GPS government has been in power for far too
long to resolve the issue of teachers shortage and irrelevant assignments to
teachers to teach the subjects they have not much ideas. When the so-called federal government has failed
to deliver their work properly, the Sarawak government has not been able to get
back our sovereign rights as a nation in the federation, isn’t it the time for
Sarawakians to change the poor and lousy government for a better and more
dynamic one all for the good of Sarawakians?
Alamak! What a
curse! What a pity! What a shame!
To hear that the BN-GPS government has to pay out again and again from
our own coffer to retrain our teachers when the so-called federal education
department has failed again and again to deliver the task properly, are you as
Sarawakians determined to flush out this government for good?
Please calculate for me to find out how much the
taxpayers’ money (sweat and blood) this corrupt and indulgent government has squandered
light-heartedly and how much has been
pocketed by these corrupt political thugs.
When soooooooo---- much money in terms of
our natural resources and taxes in different categories have been taken by the
Malaya colonial masters and imperialists, it is disgusting and exasperating beyond words
to say that we still need to pay for extra education expenses to upgrade our
schools and upskill our teachers.
