PENAMPANG: Sabah Education Exco Datuk Masidi Manjun and the Education Ministry yesterday denied there was any move to transfer about 80,000 teachers from Peninsular Malavsia to Sabah and Sarawak next year.
Masidi, who is also the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, said he had sought clarification from the director general of education Datuk Abdul Ghafar Mahmud and was told that the allegation was not true.
"This is absolutely not true. I have checked with the director general of education and he assured me that there was no basis to the news,"
Masidi said when asked to comment on the issue which has caused unhappiness among Sabahans.
Masidi who was met at the launching of the state level Kaamatan celebration at KDCA here yesterday, said he personally found the allegation to be illogical because the total number of teachers for all the primary and secondary schools in Sabah is less than 40,000.
"So if indeed they are sending the teachers here, then I don't know which schools they are going to put them in ... so it's not true," he said.
He however pointed out that Sabah loses between 750 to 1,000 senior teachers from Peninsuiar Malaysia who go back to their home states after their contract expired.
"This is the real issue actually because we are losing very experienced teachers. They are replaced by junior teachers and this will impede our effort to improve the quality of our education.
"But steps are being taken to address the problem," he said adding that in March this year, the problem was brought to the attention of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Deputy Prime Minister cum Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin yassin.
The state's education leaders' concern about the issue was voiced out and Masidi said he proposed that the recruitment of teachers be done locally.
According to him, Muhyiddin said that the ministry would seriously consider the proposal.
"If have also spoken to the director general of education and he personally assured me that they are taking steps to rectify the problem. You see, if you recruit Sabahans, the possibility of them moving to other states doesn't arise. So they will stay on and the students will gain from their experience,,'he said and disclosed that up to June this year, more than 150 teachers from Peninsular Malaysia had been transferred to Sabah.
"Our stand is very clear, if they want to recruit new teachers, they must come from Sabah and I think we have graduates who are more than capable to be trained as teachers,", Masidi stressed.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi also denied the claim of sending 80,000 teachers to the two states, saying that of May 11, there are 80,382 teachers in Sabah and Sarawak, both in Primary and Secondary schools and only 15,641 of the total were from the mainland.
"If we want to send 80,000 teachers from the mainland to Sarawak, who is going to teach in West Malaysia?," said Mohd Puad when commenting on a report that Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) was deeply concerned because such a move would compromise the potential of teachers in Sarawak.
On May 25, PRS president Datuk Dr James Jemut Masing had said that he was concerned with an alleged move by the Education Ministry to send additional teachers termed as 'counselling teachers'.
Mohd Puad said in Petaling Jaya yesterday that PRS should get in touch with the Education Ministry for clarification first because such reports to avoid any negative perception.
He said the Education Ministry had always been receptive of efforts to increase the number of local teachers in Sabah and Sarawak to teach in their own respective states.
"Since last year we have been practicing a 30:30:40 ratio in the policy of intake for teachers training institute. The ratio means 30 percent will be from Sabah and another 30 percent from Sarawak while the remaining 40 percent will be from West Malaysia.
"However, when we are faced with situations whereby there is a lack of teachers from Sabah and Sarawak who met the criteria for j-QAF grade teachers, English and Mandarin teachers, we need to recruit them from the mainland," he said.
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