KUALA LUMPUR: An average of 5,000 teachers opt for early retirement every year since 2022, with the majority citing lack of interest towards the profession as a reason, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh said 5,306 early retirement applications were approved in 2022, followed by 6,394 in 2023, 5,082 last year and 2,397 up till May this year.
According to Wong, 67.44% of teachers in their early retirement application said that they were disinterested in the profession, 17.44% cited family problems, 7.69% (health issues), 5.37% (workload) and 2.08% (personal problems).
Wong said the Education Ministry is committed to addressing the manpower issue involving educators, and that is why it recruits full-time teachers twice a year, while the Education Services Commission (SPP) opens a teachers application system throughout the year to expedite recruitment.
“This will allow the SPP to have a huge talent pool so we can attract more people to become teachers,” said Wong.
Wong also said recently on Aug 8, the Education Ministry through SPP have opened up recruitment for those without any certification or diploma in education.
“We managed to recruit graduates from public, private and foreign universities,” said Wong.
He also said that beginning last year, the Education Ministry intervened in early retirement applications involving teachers in the 40-44 year-old age group.
“We hold discussions with them and we try to persuade them from their decision to retire early,” added Wong.
Earlier, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (PN-Masjid Tanah) asked about measures to reduce workload on educators, as many teachers have complained of the workload and overlapping duties.
Wong said to ensure teachers remained motivated on the job, the ministry has implemented seven measures introduced to reduce the workload of teachers, among them hiring non-teachers as invigilators for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (examinations).
“We aim for at least 20% of invigilators to be non-teachers. But, we still have not achieved that target yet.
According to Wong, there were 7,211 volunteer invigilators in 2023 and 5,780 last year.
“We also have another approach to appoint MyStep teaching assistants at schools with 1,500 students above.
“These assistants can help reduce the workload of teachers by taking on non-instructional or administrative work for the teachers,” added Wong.
He said 282 schools have benefited from this programme where each school will have two MyStep teaching assistants.
“This brings it up to a total of 564 (MyStep teaching assistants).
“This effort will be expanded to other schools in the near future,” he added.
Education activists have said that teacher shortage and overburdened teachers are a long-standing problem that could further worsen if the Education Ministry fails to take the complaints seriously.
