The State Education Department is confident it will be able to achieve the 90 per cent target of getting Sabahans to become teachers at primary schools in Sabah by the year 2018.

Speaking to reporters after addressing 101 new teachers at Wisma Pendidikan near here yesterday, the department’s director, Datuk Hajah Maimunah Suhaibul said the percentage of Sabahans employed as  primary school teachers was now at 84 per cent.

“We only need to add another seven per cent to achieve that goal,” she said.

Nevertheless, the percentage of Sabahans holding teaching posts at secondary schools in Sabah was still a long way off the target of 90:10 policy, she said.

However, the deadline for achieving the target was extendable, she said.

“We are aggressively trying to fill up the vacancies,” she added.

Meanwhile, out of the 101 new Sabahan teachers who received their posting and appointment letters yesterday, only four would be placed in  secondary schools.

They would replace West Malaysian teachers who would be heading back to Peninsular Malaysia to work, she said.

She also urged the new teachers not to follow the example of senior teachers with ‘disciplinary’ issues such as not turning up for work on time or not coming at all.

She reminded that such teachers would face disciplinary actions, hence their negative examples should not be made into habits.

She added that there were Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to deal with such teachers.

She also said that the number of ‘problem teachers’ was not many.

At the same time, she also urged the new teachers to readily accept their posting.

She reminded that some of the Sabah’s rural areas were teemed with adventures such as crocodiles and so on.

She also reminded the new teachers that they were government employees, hence they should not criticise the government via the social media or any other outlet.

Instead, they should strive to ensure that the policy of the government was realised, she said.

Similarly, she also urged the new teachers to address bullying issues among students and to abstain from labelling any child learning under them.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by Jenne Lajiun

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