Teachers fear permanent rural postings despite special incentives
KUCHING : Teachers are apprehensive to work in the rural areas because they are afraid they will end up being there permanently, Sarawak Teachers’ Union president William Ghani Bina said.
Ghani said their fears were not unfounded because there were those who had been stuck in rural schools for 20 to 30 years.
“Teachers are afraid that once they accept postings to rural schools, the Education Ministry and Education Department will forget about them, including promotions,’’ he told The Star yesterday.
Ghani was commenting on the statement by Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Datin Fatimah Abdullah that the government was concerned over such reluctance.
Fatimah, who oversees state education affairs, said some teachers were not interested in the special incentives for teaching in rural areas like monthly allowances of between RM500 and RM1,500 and opportunities to pursue professional courses.
“The issue is not money. Teachers want to be with their families back home,’’ said Ghani.
He said the union wanted newly trained teachers to be posted to rural schools for three to five years before they are considered for transfer to urban schools.
Of the 1,262 primary schools in Sarawak, between 400 and 500 are in rural areas, including some in the inaccessible interiors.
Ghani said the union had asked Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during a meeting last month to train more locals as teachers so that they would return to serve their communities once they graduated.
He said the ministry should accept education degree holders from private universities, like Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, if it was serious about resolving the long-standing shortage of trained teachers in Sarawak.
Secondary schools in the state are short of some 200 teachers this year, and Ghani urged the ministry to send temporary teachers.
By Jack Wong.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=2010/3/8/nation/5811802&sec=nation
