ANN/THE STAR – A non-governmental organisation has urged the Malaysian Education Ministry to explain to Sabahans how it will solve the teacher shortage in the state.
“We Sabahans can understand that solving the teacher shortage requires care and consideration, but our children need access to quality education now,” said Tiada.Guru Campaign representative Fiqah Roslan.
This was after Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying was asked about the issue during a visit to Sandakan earlier this week.
Fiqah said that priority should be given to investigating structural issues within the public education sector that hinders teachers from performing their duty satisfactorily.
During a visit to SK Sungai Anib 3 and SJKC Pei Ying in Sandakan on Wednesday, the issue of the shortage of teachers was not addressed as Lim rushed to another function.
Last month, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the ministry would resolve the shortage of teachers in all states before the new school session began in March.
These include Sabah and Sarawak, though the situation in Sabah had previously been reported as “not critical”.
It was reported last year that language teachers were among those lacking in Sabah with not many taking up the courses needed to fill these posts and teachers opting to retire early being among the main contributors to this problem.
