THE Education Ministry is planning incentives for teachers who want to further their studies to the master’s and PhD levels.

Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said he would raise this with the Public Service Department.

“We hope Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad can also assist in this matter,” he said in his speech at the opening of the 48th national Teachers’ Day celebration in Penang today.

He also listed down several initiatives the ministry had introduced and is working on to make life better for teachers.

Among them is a RM35.2 million allocation to hire replacement teachers to relieve those going on leave, maternity and sick leave exceeding 28 days. The money has been sent to all state education departments.

The government is also looking into providing insurance coverage for teachers.

“The teacher safety SOP (standard operating procedures) has been reviewed and will be implemented, with the insurance coverage among the initiatives being looked into.

“We hope this will give teachers some relief. It has been a long-standing issues for teachers, who sometimes have to take their pupils outside of the school and use their own vehicles.”

Maszlee said some other long-term initiatives involved complicated issues and require existing policies and regulations to be reviewed, infrastructure to be improved, and optimising the manpower in schools. – May 16, 2019.