A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instil a love of learning.
– Brad Henry, American lawyer and politician
Picture yourself in this situation. You are a 20- or 30-something teacher from Kuala Lumpur or may be just fresh out of teachers college from any of the major cities or towns. You have lived and studied in your home state your entire life, enjoying and experiencing the good life your town or city has to offer.
One fine day you receive a letter from the Ministry of Education asking you to report for duty at a school in rural Sarawak.
You are disappointed. As much as you would want to reject the offer, you can’t. You have no choice. You pack up and arrive Kuching and after reporting yourself to the Education Department you are on your way to your rural school a few days later.
Upon arrival at the school, you are ushered to your living quarters which is quite a distance from your teaching place. It is not the sort of accommodation you had expected. Shock No. 1! More are yet to come.
You start your job and hope for the best, praying things will eventually work to your liking.
Days passed, then weeks and then months, and you realise things are not right and you begin to be disillusioned.
For example, you have to make do with a generator for electricity, and while you are so used to drinking piped and treated water back home, now you have to be contented with unfiltered water. Shock No. 2!
Shock No. 3 is when you realise you don’t have the luxury of using your cell phone as much as you would like to as coverage is limited or at times there is no coverage at all. To make the situation worse there is no landline. Internet connectivity is a luxury. There had been much talk about improving connectivity by the previous administration, but only now under Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg that things are moving.
Shock No. 4 is the harsh living and teaching conditions. You may have to go through the ordeal of a longboat journey to your school. If water levels are low, the journey can drag for hours.
What about food? Forget about mamak mee, nasi kandar, teh tarik and whatnots. You have to make do with canned food every day. That’s shock No. 5!
All these prove devastating to you. And after just a few weeks or two or three months later you dread continuing your profession as a teacher, crying to return to your home and be with your parents or family.
Just a few months in rural Sarawak have snuffed out your passion to teach.
The above experience is exactly what an ex-teacher from Petaling Jaya went through. After serving for nearly five years in Sarawak, she is back with her family. My friend has given up teaching and is now pursuing a law degree.
So much for her experience as a rural teacher. Let’s turn our attention to the issue of the perennial shortage of teachers in Sarawak. We have been talking about addressing this problem for the past several years and we are still waiting for solutions.
We are currently facing a shortage of 3,000-plus teachers. Sometime mid-last year, it was estimated that Sarawak was short of 1,840 primary school and 1,545 secondary school teachers.
Despite the Ministry of Education announcing two years ago that the Public Service Department had approved the mass recruitment of more 18,000 teachers to address the shortage in the country, especially in Sarawak, nothing seems to have come out of the assurance.
There were reports of some aspiring teachers from the state being unsuccessful in their applications during a recruitment drive in November 2021 due to a lack of quota for Sarawakians. Now, why the quota in the first place when we are talking about resolving the shortage issue? The quota is very unreasonable and hinders efforts to recruit more Sarawakian teachers! Are we serious here?
Sarawakians must be given priority if there are vacancies as they understand the local culture and sentiments better. It is also a fact that we are prepared to be posted to rural areas and serve longer in the remote areas, unlike Malayans posted here who will seek to be transferred back to their home states after a while.
The recent announcement by Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek that her ministry will “try to fill 50 per cent of teacher vacancies in Sarawak before the new school session starts in March” may come as good news to most Sarawakians.
Nevertheless, as much as I would like to welcome her announcement, I am a bit sceptical the problem would be resolved in two months’ time. Anyway, let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Certain quarters have claimed that the 90:10 Sarawakian-Malayan ratio policy had led to the teacher shortage in the state. But the minister was quick to refute the claim.
In November last year, Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn had also said the critical shortage of teachers was not caused by the 90:10 ratio policy.
The Education Ministry must not delay in getting the vacancies filled, especially in rural schools, as education of rural children will be adversely affected if good teachers are not willing to be posted to remote areas.
What can be done to tackle the problem and attract teachers to work in rural areas? The issue can be resolved through appropriate measures such as improving infrastructural facilities and addressing the imbalance in student-teacher ratio.
The student-teacher ratio imbalance will affect the teaching quality and the limited availability of resources like teaching equipment and proper classrooms is a challenge to teachers to deliver quality service and makes their job stressful.
Finally, of course attractive remuneration and non-monetary perks will attract teachers to work in rural schools.
