Lack of Islamic religious teachers in Sarawak reason for inclusion of Peninsula candidates, says KGBS

KUCHING (Oct 9): The Education Service Commission (SPP) has included around 300 teaching candidates from Peninsular Malaysia in the special teacher recruitment drive to meet the lack of Islamic religious teachers in Sarawak, according to Sarawak Bumiputera Teachers Union (KGBS).

When contacted, KGBS president Zulkiflee Sebli said he was informed of this matter and such reasoning could be considered.

“KGBS could consider the reason when SPP took in 300 teaching candidates to meet certain demands.

“We were informed this is due to the lack of qualified local candidates applying for certain options, including the Islamic religious subject. So this prompted the SPP to take in candidates from Peninsular Malaysia,” he told The Borneo Post.

If indeed, he added, there are no qualified locals to teach the Islamic religious subject, then SPP’s action to outsource from Peninsular Malaysia is appropriate.

Initially, he said KGBS was disappointed by SPP’s action to include the 300 candidates because there were indeed cases where many teachers from Peninsular Malaysia had failed to report for duty apart from using arm twisting tactics to avoid posting to Sarawak.

“The reaction of the Sarawak Premier, Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development and Sarawak Teachers Union was appropriate because, if we are still short of teachers in Sarawak, the issue will never end. Of course, we would like all locals to fill up the vacancies if we could,” he added.

KGBS has been very vocal in any meeting with the Education Ministry, Public Service Department and other relevant agencies, particularly on the issue of education autonomy.

“If Sarawak had been given the autonomy, this issue of having shortage of teachers would have been solved a long time ago.

“We are fully behind the Sarawak government to demand autonomy in education. We hope that the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) will grant us the autonomy, in line with the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963,” he stressed.

In Lundu on Tuesday, Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the Sarawak government is not being ‘Anti-Malaya’ or ‘Anti-Semenanjung’ (Peninsular Malaysia) in its request to have all the available teacher vacancies in the state to be filled up by Sarawakians.

He said what he did not want to see was the scenario where non-Sarawakian applicants, having been accepted to serve in Sarawak, would later choose to be transferred out after a few years.