Need to post some teachers to Islamic schools: Arifin
Published on: Saturday, October 10, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: There is a need to allocate a portion of the 1,000 teaching positions to qualified local graduates for Islamic secondary religious schools that are also facing a shortage of academic teachers.Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Mohd Arifin Mohd Arif, said there are six Islamic secondary religious schools in the State that are lacking teachers to teach subjects such as Mathematics, Science, English, Geography and History, among others."The shortage of academic teachers in the Islamic secondary religious schools is not alarming. Nonetheless, we are hoping that the Education Department would spare some local teachers out of the 1,000 to cater to the teaching needs of our Islamic secondary schools.ADVERTISEMENT "Sabah Islamic Religious Affairs Department (Jheains) will be submitting an application to the Education Department here to seek some teachers for the academic subjects," he said.Arifin, who is in-charge of Islamic affairs in Sabah, said this to reporters after presenting RM10,000 each to headmasters of five Islamic Sekolah Agama Rakyat at Wisma Muis, here, Friday.The five recipients were Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR) Serusup in Tuaran, SAR Masjid Negeri, SAR Al-Hidayah Pasir, Putatan, SAR Kulambai in Kota Belud and SAR Tg Kapor, Kudat.Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council (MAWIP) rendered the cash aid to the five identified SARs in Sabah that depend on public donations to finance their operations as well as receive some grants from the State government via Sabah Tithe Centre and MAWIP, among others.ADVERTISEMENT Arifin said the shortage of teachers in Sekolah Agama Negeri (SAN) under the supervision and management of Jheains and SARs is not critical."There are 105 SANs and 144 SARs in the State with over 40,000 Islamic students and each school would have between three and five Islamic teachers.
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"However, any shortage of the teachers would be filled up by volunteers and some teachers from KAFA (Al-Quran and Fardhu Ain Class) under the Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim)," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Earlier, Arifin thanked Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom via MAWIP to render the cash assistance to the five SARs in Sabah.Although the cash aid is not sufficient to cater to the five SARs operations, he said the funds could lessen some of the schools' financial burden.