MP slams teacher shortage, growing party culture in varsities

 

Hulu Selangor MP Hasnizan Harun claimed that teachers were forced to teach subjects outside their expertise and there was also a rise in excessive entertainment culture at universities.

KUALA LUMPUR: 

Teachers nationwide are being forced to teach subjects outside their expertise, leaving both educators and students struggling to cope with an already challenging curriculum, an opposition MP claimed in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Hasnizan Harun (PN-Hulu Selangor) accused the education minister of failing to address the issue, resulting in teachers having to handle subjects they were not qualified in, such as Science and English.

“This not only makes it difficult for them (teachers), but also affects students’ learning experience,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

He urged the education ministry to take immediate action by recruiting more teachers and ensuring proper subject placements, warning that failure to do so would compromise education quality.

It was reported in 2023 that schools across the country were facing a shortage of 20,000 teachers. The ministry has since taken steps to appoint more teachers, including in both contract and permanent positions.

At the same time, Hasnizan also raised concerns over the growing “party culture” in universities, with some events allegedly normalising excessive entertainment among students.

According to him, concerts and similar activities were overshadowing the role of universities as institutions for academic and moral development.

“I urge the higher education ministry to take this issue seriously, or else incidents like what happened at the Pinkfish concert could happen again,” he said, referring to the New Year countdown event that led to the deaths of four revellers. - FMT