Education Ministry aims to fill 50 pct of teacher vacancies in Sarawak by March

KUCHING - The Education Ministry (KPM) is making efforts to fill 50 per cent of the estimated 3,000 vacancies for teachers in Sarawak by March, said its minister Fadhlina Sidek.

She said the effort was her ministry's initial step to solve the issue of teacher shortage in Sarawak.

She expressed confidence that a solution can be reached even though the policy of 90:10 ratio of Sarawak teachers and non-Sarawak teachers is still used for the state.

"There will be new (teacher) placements by March and we will try to solve it (shortage) by 50 per cent first because this issue of teacher placement is not only happening in Sarawak but other states that we have to solve as well.

"The placement of teachers also has a cycle, there are also teachers who apply to return to their home states and we need to bring in new teachers to replace them," she said after visiting Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Batu Kawa here, today.

Fadhlina said in addition to the teacher shortage, the issue of facilities including upgrading dilapidated schools in Sarawak was also top on the agenda of the ministry.

On Jan 26, Fadhlina said the effort to upgrade 568 dilapidated schools throughout Sarawak was one of the main concerns of the federal government in the 2023 Budget which will be tabled on Feb 24.

She said the ministry has identified 455 dilapidated that were on scale six and 113 on scale seven.

Scales six and seven in the assessment of a school's infrastructure refer to the condition of the buildings which are deemed dangerous and unsafe to use. - BERNAMA