Move to address teacher shortage in Chinese schools

Compiled by MARTIN CARVALHO, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

IN a bid to address the shortage of teachers at Chinese vernacular schools, the Education Ministry will be asking nearly 500 temporary teachers to sign up for training as full-fledged educators, Sin Chew Daily reported.A spokesman for Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon’s office said 471 candidates – all of whom were temporary teachers in 2020 – would be receiving letters to attend a one-year teacher training programme.

The letters will specify which course the candidates will be taking as well as the teachers’ training college that they will be attending.

The spokesman said the course was designed to be taken during school holidays to minimise the disruption to the teachers’ duties.

Candidates will be given two years to finish the programme, after which they will graduate as full-fledged teachers.

“In the event that they do not finish in two years, their contract will still be renewed, ” said the spokesman.

It was reported last month that many temporary teachers complained that they had yet to

receive a letter to attend the training programme.

Dr Mah later explained that the programme was delayed due to logistical issues stemming from the movement control order.

The training programme was originally an 18-month course but this was shortened to 12 months last year to address the perennial shortage of teachers in primary schools.

> The daily also reported that Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai joked that she “wanted to retire” after having to film for 24 hours just to produce her latest music video.

The 40-year-old reportedly filmed in eight locations over a span of two days for the music video of her latest single Stars Align which was released on April 23.

Tsai admitted that she had a “love-hate relationship” with the video director Muh Chen, who asked her to execute a ridiculously difficult dance move in a swimming pool while wearing heels.

“I feel like I want to retire every time I work with Chen!” she said.

However, when the music video was released, Tsai said all the efforts were worth it.

Known as the Dancing Diva, Tsai is famous not only for her singing but also her provocative dance moves.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.