Half of Sarawak's teaching vacancies to be filled by June

KUCHING: About half of the 3,076 vacancies for teachers in Sarawak will be filled by June, the Sarawak Legislative Assembly heard on Friday (Nov 24).

State Deputy Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee (pic) said the state was short of 819 teachers for secondary schools and 2,257 for primary schools as of Sept 30.

He said it was agreed at a Nov 7 meeting between state and Federal Education authorities that the shortage of secondary school teachers would be fully resolved by February.

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For primary schools, he said the shortage would be partially addressed with 752 teachers by June.

"This leaves us with a shortage of 1,505 primary school teachers. We have proposed to the Education Ministry to employ non-teaching graduates on contract.

"We hope this can be implemented to resolve the shortage," he said in reply to Wilfred Yap (GPS-Kota Sentosa) during question time.

Dr Annuar also said the Education Ministry had agreed to delegate the approval of state-funded projects for schools in Sarawak to the state Education director.

He said this would prevent delays in project implementation as approval would no longer need to come from Putrajaya.

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However, he said the state was still waiting for the delegation of power to take effect.

Yap also asked about the financial implications if Sarawak is given full autonomy in education.

Dr Annuar said it was possible for the state to be granted autonomy while the Federal Government continued to be responsible for the financial obligation, based on the provisions of Articles 80(4) and (5) of the Federal Constitution.

"Keep in mind that to run education in Sarawak, RM4.7bil is needed for operational costs alone, which is almost half the state budget," he added.