PETALING JAYA: The Ministry of Education will be working with local universities to include a diploma in teaching for Chinese studies students so that they will be qualified as teachers once they graduate, says Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

With the diploma in teaching, university graduates can be sent to schools right away, thus easing the acute shortage of Chinese language teachers in secondary schools, he said.

Diploma in teaching

In an interview with Sin Chew Daily, Mah said this is one of the plans proposed to ease the shortage of Chinese language teachers in the country.

The Institute of Teacher Education has stopped training programmes for Chinese language teachers in secondary schools, the main reason for the shortage of Chinese language teachers in secondary schools, he explained.

The Ministry of Education is recruiting university graduates majoring in education to teach in secondary schools.

“Recruiting university graduates to teach in secondary schools is not a problem as the pool of graduates is huge,” he said.

However, Chinese language teachers for secondary schools are currently from Sultan Idris University of Education which only trains about 40 to 50 Chinese language teachers a year, insufficient to cope with the demand for Chinese language teachers in secondary schools,” he said.

“One of the measures is to increase the number of students for Chinese language teachers in Sultan Idris University of Education,” he said.

Mah said graduates with a diploma in education would be sent to schools to teach as a “permanent appointment” while graduates without the diploma in education are required to complete the teaching profession course ranging in duration from nine months to one and a half years, while teaching.

With the diploma in teaching, university graduates can be sent to schools right away, thus easing the acute shortage of Chinese language teachers in secondary schools.

Shortfall of 172 teachers

In a one-off recruitment plan by the Ministry of Education, Mah said he contacted several people in charge of Chinese studies at various universities to include their students in the recruitment list.

“Since I became the Deputy Education Minister, I have been liaising with Majlis Pembangunan SMJK Conforming Malaysia and the Malaysian Conforming Secondary Schools Principals Council.

“I have held talks on the shortage of Chinese teachers in secondary schools for several times.

“I have also discussed with the Malaysian Chinese Language Council, the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), the United Chinese School Teachers’ Association (Jiao Zong) and the Malaysia Secondary School Chinese Language Teachers Association,” he said.

The Ministry of Education had resorted to several methods to ensure sufficient supply of Chinese language teachers in secondary schools each year, Mah said.

Currently there are 2,210 Chinese language teachers in secondary schools nationwide.

As of last December, secondary schools across the country were short of 172 Chinese language teachers.

“A total of 32 qualified Chinese language teachers have been recruited to teach in secondary schools during the one-off recruitment exercise,” he said.

Another 49 contract teachers without qualification in education are waiting for appointment letters from Education Services Commission.

On the case of nine Universiti Malaya Chinese studies graduates not recruited by the Education Services Commission, Mah said recruitment was under the jurisdiction of the commission.

He said the commission did not accept application later than 15 December.

“I have requested the commission to enlist these applicants in the next round of recruitment and the commission has agreed to discuss the matter,” he said.