13,255 teachers given placements under one-off recruitment programme

The education ministry today said that 13,255 teachers had been given placements as of March 28 under the special one-off recruitment programme to resolve the shortage of educators throughout the country.

In an oral response to Bersatu’s Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid who had asked about the status of the recruitment drive, Education Minister Radzi Jidin said another 515 teachers would be given placements from April 11 onwards.

“This leaves 4,932 vacancies under this special intake to be filled by qualified candidates,” he said.

The one-off recruitment programme had sought to fill 18,702 positions at government schools throughout the country, under the jurisdiction of the Education Service Commission (SPP) as the appointing authority.

Radzi said the intake of new teachers was based on vacancies as well as matching subject options.

He added that the education ministry had introduced the subject cluster method for the one-off recruitment of teachers to open up opportunities for more graduates to apply, based on the mapping of their degrees with the appropriate subjects.

In terms of selection criteria, he said priority for permanent placements is given to graduates with educational qualifications from public, private and foreign universities.

“Candidates must also meet the requirements of the service scheme and subject cluster, and succeed at the interview stage with the SPP,” he said.

Adding that the SPP had completed the appointment process, he said offers had been announced in stages with 13,770 candidates successfully offered permanent appointments so far.