Tawau: The relatively poor academic achievement in the State is due to peninsula teachers being transferred to Sabah in huge numbers annually and then leaving the State when their time is up."More than 20 per cent of teachers are from outside the State," State Education Director, Datuk Dr Muhiddin Yusin, said, adding that about 700 to 1,000 teachers choose to be posted to their own State after completing their contracts here.
"Newly recruited teachers are normally those without experience.
Hence, the importance of keeping teachers with experience," he said.
One step that has been suggested to remedy the situation was for priority to be given to locals in the recruitment of teachers for Sabah, Muhiddin told reporters after attending the State Teacher's Day celebrations here.
"The proposal had a positive reaction from the Ministry during the recent Open Registration for Teachers, especially from interior such as Bangi Island, Tenom and Telupid.
"They have since carried out interviews in rural areas of Sabah to find suitable candidates to be trained as teachers," he said.
Speaking after launching the Teachers Day Celebration here, Thursday, he said about 20 teachers were issued with show cause letters for abseentism.
Stern action would be taken against those caught involved in other endeavours without prior permission from the school, Muhiddin said.
He acknowledged the increased passing rate in the UPSR, PMR, SPM and STPM in 2010.
For SPM, those scoring A were 152 compared to 95 in 2009. Sabah, for the first time achieved a passing rate of 94.87 per cent in 2010 compared to 92.54 per cent in 2009 in the SPM national level.
Arjunan A/L Selvamani (SM Sung Siew, Sandakan) received the Best Student Award 2010 national level.
While Syivero Patrick (SMK Kota Marudu) received the Best Student STPM 2010 national level in the rural category.
