200 Demand Teaching Posts After System Glitch Leaves Them Out

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Siti Khadijah Lutfi of the affected graduates group said deputy education minister Mohamad Alamin’s response was disappointing.GEORGE TOWN: A group of nearly 200 graduates aspiring to be teachers are demanding answers from the education minister after being erroneously dropped from a teachers intake next month.
The affected group, mostly from private universities, had passed an interview last year for a special intake of 18,000 teachers in April. However, their applications were “overlooked” by the education service commission due to a system glitch.
Their spokesperson, Siti Khadijah Lutfi, said it was disappointing to hear a deputy education minister say the ministry would “fix a glitch” in the system that caused them to be left out.
“Why bother addressing the glitch when you can give us our teaching placements, which we deserve? We want the education minister to place us before the April school session begins,” she told FMT.
Astro Awani reported that the glitch was acknowledged by deputy education minister Mohamad Alamin today, and he said the education service commission has been ordered to fix the issue.
Khadijah said the affected group, which calls itself Hak Graduan Ikthisas Pendidikan, was also disturbed by the commission’s sudden change of goalposts by saying they preferred public university graduates.
She claimed this was relayed by an officer of the commission in a phone call before an official of the public complaints bureau on Feb 22.
Khadijah said minister Radzi Jidin had said all graduates were welcome to apply for the teaching jobs whether they were from a public or private university. The affected group are mostly from private varsities.
She said the group was upset that the ministry had announced they would hire 6,000 more prospective teachers who need not be from an education background.
“By right, they should give us education graduates priority. Why not put us in placement first before hiring another 6,000 teachers who are not professionally trained to be teachers?” she asked.
FMT has contacted the education ministry for comment. - FMT

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