BY JAMES WONG
KUCHING: The Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) is calling on the Ministry of Education (MoE) to take immediate action to resolve the shortage and workload of teachers in Sarawak.
According to its president Kullin Djayang, despite the recruitment of 18,702 ‘one-off’ teachers by former Minister of Education Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin last year, only 2,667 teachers have been allocated to Sarawak. This figure includes 215 teachers who declined the positions for personal reasons.
Djayang said that the shortage of teachers in Sarawak currently stands at approximately 3,006, and the number is expected to rise due to impending retirements.
“This shortage of teachers is one of the main factors contributing to Sarawak lagging behind other states in terms of education. Numerous crucial subjects, particularly in rural primary and secondary schools, suffer from a lack of qualified teachers,” he said in a statement yesterday (May 30).
Djayang also highlighted the increased workload on existing teachers, particularly in larger schools, as they are required to assume additional responsibilities and teach subjects outside their areas of expertise.
“This places a significant burden on teachers, as they have to teach subjects unrelated to their specialisations, in addition to fulfilling other duties such as extracurricular activities,” he added.
He identified several subjects facing critical shortages of teachers, including moral education, Islamic education, visual arts education, physical education, design and life skills, as well as preschool education.
Furthermore, Djayang noted that the online data filling requirements pose challenges, especially for teachers in large or rural schools. This difficulty has contributed to an increasing trend of early retirement among teachers.
In light of these concerns, Djayang called on the ministry to prioritise the recruitment of Sarawak natives to teach in the state, aiming to reduce the outflow of teachers returning to their home states.
“If an excessive number of teachers from other states are assigned to Sarawak, the problem will not be adequately resolved,” he cautioned.
