GEORGE TOWN, May 13 — There is no shortage of English teachers in the country, the Education Ministry said today.
Education Director-General Datuk Amin Senin denied claims by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) that there were insufficient English language teachers in schools.
“Currently, we do not have insufficient English language teachers as we can fill the language teacher spots with interim and non-English option teachers,” he told a press conference today after attending a Teachers Festival here.
He admitted that there is a shortage of English option teachers but it would not be a problem for other option teachers to teach English.
He said interim teachers and other option teachers can also teach English language in schools.
He was responding to NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan who had claimed a lack of English language teachers and that forcing non-English language teachers to sit for the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) examination will not resolve the issue.
Amin said there were two strategies listed in the Malaysian Education Development Plan 2013-2025 to improve the teaching skills and learning of English.
He said the plan not only focused on increasing the number of English language teachers but also to improve the quality of teachers.
”Even though the plan was implemented since 2013, it is still underway and it will ensure improvements in the quality of teachers in schools,” he said.
He noted NUTP’s concerns over a lack of English option teachers.
“The ministry is now looking into this and coming up with ways to resolve it,” he said.
Meanwhile, on proposals that group insurance be introduced for teachers, Amin said the ministry agreed with the proposal.
“We will still need to look into the proposal in detail so we will ask that the Yayasan Guru Malaysia Berhad prepare a detailed proposal including the terms, coverage and payment scheme for our scrunity first,” he said.
He was responding to a suggestion by Yayasan Guru Malaysia Berhad chairman Aminudin Adam that a group insurance scheme be introduced for teachers.
“The ministry welcomes such a proposal especially to provide coverage for teachers who are on duty when accompanying students on field trips,” he said.
He said currently, teachers on field trips are covered but on an individual basis so this proposal for a group insurance may prove to be more reasonably priced.
He said the ministry will approve this new scheme if the proposed terms and coverage are reasonable and prove to be better than the current insurance scheme used.
