Chinese schools: Teachers shortage reduced since 2009

Chinese schools are seeing its teacher shortage go down every year, according to the Deputy Education Minister.

KUALA LUMPUR: The increasing number of teachers employed in Chinese schools every year has helped reduce the shortage, said  Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong said.

Speaking to the Dewan Rakyat today, Wee said: “I want to tell you, when I came into the ministry (in 2009), we were short of 4,991 [teachers].  In 2010, [this dropped] to 3,043 (and reduced further to) 2,720 in 2011 and now (it is) 1,874 this year.”

“This is not something which came from the sky.”

Wee said that Chinese schools were not the only schools in the country that were suffering from a shortage of teachers, and that Tamil as well as national schools were facing the same problem.

Adding to this was Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who said that Sarawak was short of 683 teachers.

Wee was replying to a supplementary question by Petaling Jaya Selatan (PKR) MP Hee Loy Sian, who criticised Wee for not being effective at his job.

In response to this, Wee said that the PKR MP was more than welcome to take over his portfolio, if Pakatan Rakyat were to win in the next general election.

He added that at the moment, the Cabinet had formed a committee to address the shortage, and that the ministry was working hard to solve the matter.

The Education Ministry has been in the spotlight for supposedly failing to resolve the shortage of trained teachers in Chinese schools.

On March 25, the deputy minister attended a Dong Zong (United Chinese School Committees Association) rally in Kajang, which saw over 5,000 people attend.

The rally allegedly turned unruly and Wee had reportedly made a quick exit. He had later reportedly told newsmen that someone tried to punch him, and that newspapers and plastic bottles were thrown at him.