No qualms for more Sabahans as teachers: DPM
Published on: Saturday, January 24, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: About 350 applicants from Sabah were offered a place in the various teachers training institutes in the country for the Teaching Degree Programme last year, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.He said a total of 6,941 applications were received from Sabah in 2014 and 1,957 passed the initial screening and 786 shortlisted for interviews.Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, said the Ministry together with the teachers training institutes had been actively promoting teaching as a career to SPM leavers in Sabah and Sarawak.ADVERTISEMENT "I have no qualms for more Sabahans to be trained as teachers provided they fulfil the requirements," he said at a special meeting and dialogue with Sabah education officials at University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), here, Friday.Special interviews were also held in rural areas in order to get direct supply of teachers from the interior, he said."The Government is also concerned with the facilities for the trainee teachers since the quality of teachers starts from their training, he said. He added that for this reason, under the Fourth Rolling Plan of the 10th Malaysia Plan, an allocation of RM83 million was approved for the second phase of the upgrading project of the Gaya teachers training institute here.ADVERTISEMENT This year, four districts in Sabah, namely Kudat, Sandakan, Keningau and Kota Kinabalu, would see the implementation of the new policy under the National Blue Ocean Strategy whereby the placement of teaching assistants would be based on the number of enrollments.One teaching assistant would be placed in schools with 500 enrolments, two for 551 to 1,350 students and three for more than 1,350 students, he said, adding the policy was pioneered in Melaka in 2013 and Kedah in 2014.
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Muhyiddin said the Government was committed in seeing to the needs of education in Sabah and would continue to carry out its responsibility as promised.He said last year alone an allocation of RM74.9 million was allocated for the maintenance of schools and teaching institutions in Sabah while the Ministry had also delegated powers to the State Education Director to approve development projects costing RM5 million and below."I call upon the education personnel in Sabah to continue doubling up efforts so that their performance will improve in order to take out the State from the bottom five doldrums," he said.Understandably, efforts to uplift education in Sabah faced challenges due to the geographical situation and infrastructures that still needed to be improved.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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But, with the existing local expertise and spirit as well as support from the Federal and State Governments, he was confident that Sabah's education would move forward.Meanwhile, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman assured that the State Government would continue to provide its support to the State Education Department for the betterment of the education quality in Sabah.