Teachers recruitment: No ‘Anti-Malaya’ sentiment in requesting posts be slated for S’wakians

LUNDU (Oct 8): The Sarawak government is not being ‘Anti-Malaya’ or ‘Anti-Semenanjung’ (Peninsular Malaysia) in its request to have all the available teachers’ vacancies in the state to be filled up by Sarawakians, Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has stressed.

Commenting on the issue about non-Sarawakian applicants being accepted into the special teacher recruitment drive for Sarawak, he said what he did not want to see was the scenario where these non-Sarawakian applicants, having been accepted to serve in Sarawak, would later choose to be transferred out after a few years.

“Such a situation will not solve the problem of teachers’ shortage in Sarawak

“(It’s) not that we are ‘Anti-Semenanjung’, but we want local teachers so that they would not request for transfer.

“Sometimes, they (those from outside) come in to serve Sarawak but after two years, they ask to be transferred back.

“If the teachers are Sarawakians, very likely they would not ask to be transferred,” he said at a press conference held after attending an event at the Centre of Technical Excellence (Centexs) in Lundu.

Abang Johari also expressed his disappointment over seeing the undertaking under this special recruitment drive to recruit more Sarawakians, was not being fulfilled.

“What happened was the Education Service Commission (SPP) had made a promise convincing us that the newly-recruited trainee teachers would be from Sarawak.

“Suddenly, they changed their mind and opened (it up) to (applicants from) the ‘Semenanjung’,” he added.

Abang Johari said for the time being, he would leave the matter to the Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Sarawak Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn to re-negotiate with the SPP regarding the teachers’ recruitment programme.

Sagah, who was also present at the press conference, reiterated that only applicants from Sarawak should be accepted for this special teachers’ recruitment drive.

The matter came to light on Monday after Sagah revealed the over 1,700 shortlisted candidates under the special teachers’ recruitment drive for Sarawak had included 300 applicants with teaching qualifications from outside the state.

Face-to-face interviews for the recruitment drive kicked off today, and would continue until tomorrow (Oct 10), covering Kuching, Sibu, and Miri.

It is also disclosed the recruitment drive have received almost 16,000 applications from Sarawakians alone, and another 2,000 applications from other parts of the country.

The applicants are then required to undergo the Teacher Candidate Eligibility Test (UKCG) online before being called for the in-person interviews.