Teaching Vacancies In Sarawak - To Benefit Who?

 Teaching Vacancies In Sarawak - To Benefit Who?

On the matter of the plan by the Ministry of Education (MOE) for a one-off big scale recruitment to employ 18,702 non-teaching graduates to fill in teaching vacancies nationwide.

Sarawak is among the states badly affected by the shortage of teachers.

Three notable reactions (among the many that had surfaced) are worth taking note of as they represent two extremes of thoughts on the matter.

The first reaction, and it has been reported by several mainstream newspaper, represent the agenda of an NGO guided by the Ketuanan Melayu Malaya philosophy. They very cleverly disguised their agenda as ‘care’ for quality teachers and quality teaching. They said they are against the MOE employing non-teaching graduates.

The two other reactions are from thinking and intelligent Sarawakians whose thoughts on the matter are correctly placed. These two said unemployed teaching graduates must be prioritised.

https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/06/21/senator-prioritise-education-graduates-under-one-off-recruitment-for-teachers/

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/06/24/give-priority-to-unemployed-teaching-graduates-in-recruitment-drive-education-ministry-told

There is no information in public sphere about how many teaching graduates are still unemployed in Sarawak but the MOE had disclose that there are 3000 teaching vacancies in Sarawak. The number of unemployed teaching graduates cannot be more than 1000 so we are easily looking at 2000 vacancies that can be taken up by non-teaching graduates from Sarawak. Is this in fact the real reason why this Malaya based NGO is objecting to the MOE’s plan? Are they, in reality, looking at this 2000 vacancies as an opportunity for them to exploit and to further their ketuanan melayu Malaya agenda in Sarawak by getting their own non-teaching graduate members to fill in the vacancies?

The problem with the shortage of teachers in Sarawak is a manifestation of the policies of the federal government in the past. There is no two way about it and this Malaya based NGO is a big contributory factor to the problem.

Reporting on this issue on the 22nd June 2021, the New Sarawak Tribune had use these words to describe it: We have sacrificed meritocracy and quality teaching for mediocrity and politics.

The politics was imbued with ketuanan melayu Malaya and the end result was widespread mediocrity among the teaching force and in the quality of education in Malaysia.

https://www.utusan.com.my/nasional/2021/01/2500-profesor-kita-tiada-kualiti-dr-arshad/

The taking in of guru sambilan and guru interim has long been a practice adopted by the education ministry to fill in urgent teaching vacancies, particularly in rural schools. As far as a teaching background is concerned, these temporary teachers are not substantially different from the non-teaching graduates who is now at the heart of this issue. In fact if the brains in the MOE were to critically look at this issue they should notice that this problem present a very unique opportunity for them to put in place a measurable key performance indicator system that will objectively measure the performances of teachers. And I have this weird gut feeling that if this were to be done, the members of this NGO will take to the streets to protest against it as the system will put in danger the continuing employment of many of their members.

So to the officials of this NGO and its members, I show you my middle finger.

That being said, the Sarawak government is guilty, in part, of allowing the problem to fester for so long. Not withstanding that education is on the Federal List in the federal constitution, the Sarawak government, past and present, should have exerted their rights and made sure sure that education matters in Sarawak must fully meet the aspirations of Sarawakians and of the state.

Sarawakians, as we approach the  12th state elections, let us reflect on this.

Shortage Of Teachers - Mediocrity And Politics

 Shortage Of Teachers - Mediocrity And Politics

The New Sarawak Tribune reported on the MOE’s decision to implement a one-off recruitment of 18,702 graduates teachers to fill vacancies in schools nationwide with a front page teaser which in part said ‘ But in our pursuit of quantity, let’s not sacrifice quality. We have sacrificed meritocracy and quality teaching for mediocrity and politics’

That teaser was not attributed in any one in particular so we have to assume that it comes from an editor of the Sarawak Tribune. Whether you would like to further assume that is was prompted by a politician from the ruling GPS government (who wish to remain anonymous) is entirely up to you.

Whoever those thoughts came from it highlighted what is common knowledge among many Malaysians, particularly Sarawakian parents and students who have long complained, not just about quality of teachers who arrived from Malaya but also about the distorted history of Sarawak and disproportionate amount of the history of Islam in the text books for Sejarah.

The Sarawak Teachers Union (STU), in a statement dated 20^st June 2021, said that there are some 3000 vacancies in Sarawak.

https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/06/20/moe-spp-urged-to-come-up-with-clear-guidelines-instructions-for-large-scale-recruitment-of-teachers/

The statement also said that Sarawak is in dire need of new teachers especially for subjects such as English, History, Islamic Studies and Special Education Programme. This is however is not the point which this article wants to discuss. The objective of this article is to stir a debate on the role of the Sarawak’s Ministry Of Education, Science & Technological Research in determining the direction of the education sector in Sarawak so that it will fully meet the aspirations of Sarawak’s students.

Three years ago the Sarawak Education Department (or the Sarawak Chapter of the Jabatan Pendidikan) said that it was working  to reach a posting ratio of nine local teachers to one from outside the state under initiative 90:10 by 2018.

That time the ratio for secondary schools, the ratio of local teachers to those from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan was 73:25:2 (10,628 locals, 3,687 West Malaysians and 229 from Sabah and Labuan). The number of non-Sarawakian teachers in the primary schools were about the same. Three years down the road, Sarawak was no where near the targeted ratio of 90:10. In fact the situation worsen to a point where this one-off mega recruitment became the only viable solution to this problem of shortage of teachers in Sarawak.

https://www.theborneopost.com/2015/10/08/90-pct-local-teachers-by-year-2018/

The 90:10 ratio in fact went all the way back to 2010. And in 2015  news about unemployed teaching graduates from UNITAR surfaced.

https://www.theborneopost.com/2015/10/09/accept-unitar-graduates-for-training-to-achieve-91-ratio/

https://bosspengajar.blogspot.com/2015/02/dud-degrees-leave-graduates-in-fix.html

Among the reason proffered by the MOE then was Sarawakian candidates for the Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) were not qualified, either academically or because they failed some psychological tests. Yet it was painfully obvious that many teachers sent from Malaya were of inferior quality and lacking in motivation especially when it comes to teaching in rural schools.

Except for a very brief period of 22 months i.e from May 2018 to March 2020, the government of Sarawak was always part of the federal government. Before May 2018, it was the Sarawak’s chapter of Barisan Nasional (BN) that was the government in Sarawak. After Feb 2020, it was the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), a rebranded BN, that is the government. GPS, as we all know is a coalition partner in the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. In fact, GPS is not only a partner but a very strategic one too because without them the PN government would not be in existent today. They were the kingmakers and they were shy about claiming the title.

The question that we must ask now is this: Why did the Sarawak government, despite recognising the gravity of the problem so long ago, did nothing to arrest the problem and let it fester until it reached the emergency that we are seeing now? Was their strategic position in BN and in PN a farce?

The local Sarawak ministry in charge of educational matters in Sarawak, past and present failed miserably. The incumbency of BN and now GPS’s lawmakers takes precedent over the vital interest of the general Sarawakians and so they become subservient to the of leaders of Malaya. In other words they become ulun Malaya. This paved the way for the Malayan minister-in-charge to send many substandard teachers from Malaya to Sarawak, many of whom cannot even string a decent sentence in English.

As part of the background to this article, it is pertinent to know that in the history of Malaysia’s ministry of education there had been 23 ministers of education so far, starting with Abdul Razak Hussein. Out the 23 ministers of education that we have had until today, only 2 are from Sarawak - Abdul Rahman Ya’kub ( from 1969 - 1970) and Sulaiman Daud (July 1981 - July 1984). The other 21 are all Malayan.

Of the 23 ministers of education that have served Malaysia, 6 went on to become prime minister (PM) of Malaysia. Every single one of them, including the 6 that went on to become PM,  were fully acquainted with the problems but none demonstrated any particular motivation to solve the problem. Sarawak was not in their backyard.

Do you still want to entrust your children’s future to this incompetent and uncaring government? Renung renung lah.

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From the time the problem of shortage of teachers in Sarawak became public sometimes in 2010, there had been 5 ministers of education, among them the current prime minister of Malaysia, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

https://www.malaysiatercinta.com/2016/11/senarai-alamat-peta-lokasi-gps-mrsm.html

( 3 MRSM in operation in Sarawak). 2 under construction - Lawas and Bintulu 

https://www.malaysiatercinta.com/2018/12/senarai-sekolah-berasrama-penuh-sbp.html

 ( 3 SMK Sains in Sarawak)