Sarawak wants to be empowered to recruit own teachers

Sarawak minister says state needs 988 teachers by March and wants the federal education ministry to give it the authority to recruit Sarawakian graduates.

KUCHING - Sarawak wants to fill 988 vacancies for teachers in the state and is asking the education ministry to empower it to employ local graduates.

The Borneo Post reported Sarawak Women, Welfare and Community Wellbeing Minister Fatimah Abdullah as saying the state hoped to fill the vacancies at the latest by March.

Fatimah, who keeps a watching brief on education for the state, said: “The state government had written officially to the Education Ministry to give us the authorisation and power to recruit local graduates in the open market.

“However until now, there has been no answer to our request.”

She said this at a press conference after chairing the Sarawak Education Consultancy Council meeting at a hotel here yesterday.

Education comes under the purview of the federal government.

According to The Borneo Post report, Fatimah said the state education department had the database of local graduates from where it could pick the right candidates for the job.

Fatimah also revealed that the state needed 401 Islamic religious teachers.

As the state education department could not get locals to fill the vacancies, it had requested the education ministry to send the needed Islamic religious teachers.

The Borneo Post reported that she assured locals that getting teachers from outside Sarawak would not affect Sarawak’s quest for a 90:10 ratio in the teaching profession (90% local teachers and 10% teachers from other states) in 2018.

“We are very near to achieving our target.

Currently, the ratio is 88.9:10. So, by next year, we should be able to achieve the 90:10 ratio,” she was quoted as saying. - FMT