IPOH: Aspiring teachers are encouraged to take up special education as a career path, with growing demand for such educators across the country, says Wong Kah Woh.
The Deputy Education Minister said that while popular options such as Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, English and Mathematics remain important, there is now a pressing need for more teachers to specialise in special education.
"Every year, Teacher Education Institutes (IPG) offer an intake for special education.
"We hope more aspiring teachers will choose this option as their career pathway," he said after the groundbreaking ceremony for the Special Education Integrated Programme (PPKI) classroom at SJK (C) Chung Tack in Kg Simee here on Monday (Sept 29).
Wong said there are 10,359 special educators nationwide for the primary school level.
He added that teachers trained through IPGs select their preferred subject option at the point of entry.
"Of course, all teaching options are needed, but when it comes to special education, the demand has been rising sharply.
"We hope our future teachers will take up this option as part of their career direction," he said.
Wong said as of July 31, there are a total of 6,799 PPKI classes in primary schools nationwide, supported by 10,316 teachers.
In Perak, there are 532 PPKI classes, with five more schools adding them this year.
"SJK (C) Chung Tak is the second Chinese primary school in Ipoh to provide such facilities.
"The initiative is part of the Madani government’s 'Adopted Village' programme, under which ministers, deputy ministers and senior officials are required to adopt a village or town to better address local issues.
"For my part, I have adopted Kampung Simee as my Madani village, and earlier this year, we came to the school, and found a need for special education in the area," Wong added.
