SUNGAI SIPUT: The Education Ministry will increase the one-off intake of teachers for placement next year through the subject cluster method, says Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin (pic).
He estimates the intake will exceed the usual figure of 4,000 graduates recruited yearly, a common practice at the ministry.
"Prior to Covid-19, around 4,000 to 5,000 graduates were recruited each year to fill vacancies. When the cluster system was introduced, it gave us the opportunity to increase teacher intake.
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"So now we are trying to increase the figure. This effort is being carried out by the Education Services Commission,” he told reporters after a discourse programme with the Orang Asli community here on Thursday (Aug 25).
It was reported that 18,702 Grade DG41 Education Service Officers had been recruited on a one-off basis in a special recruitment drive to fill teaching vacancies in schools under the commission.
Radzi said the Subject Cluster method had also helped address problems such as backlogs and mismatches in the recruitment of teachers.
"The backlog issue has been going on for many years because of a teacher shortage, while the mismatch problem was addressed when graduates with certain areas of specialisation were allowed to fill vacancies in other subjects under the same cluster,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Radzi said the ministry had received 69 complaints related to bullying since the Aduan Buli portal was launched last Thursday (Aug 18), adding that all the complaints would be reviewed before any action was taken.
"The most important thing about this system is that we keep the information confidential. We don’t want it to get out because then, it will put the children under pressure.
"(As of now) action has been taken in some cases while some complaints are still under investigation,” he said. – Bernama