THE shortage of teachers in Chinese vernacular schools can be eased by slotting in fresh graduates from teachers’ training colleges, said Chinese education group Jiao Zong.

But according to Jiao Zong chairman Ong Chiow Chuen, the Education Ministry will only despatch the latest batch of graduates in March 2018, leaving schools short at the start of the 2018 academic year.

“When schools reopen in January 2018, there will be many SJKCs facing the problem of teacher shortages.

“With more headmasters and teachers retiring soon, the shortage will be dire,” said Ong.

Quoting a survey conducted by the Federation of Chinese School Headmasters, Ong said, there are 500 vacancies due to retirement and resignations.

Jiao Zong, which stands for United Chinese School Committees’ Association and United Chinese School Teachers’ Association, said the problem is worsened by the ministry’s failure to allocate funds to schools to hire temporary teachers.

In the past, former deputy education minister Wee Ka Siong helped to arrange around 400 fresh graduates from the teachers’ training colleges to teach in Chinese primary schools as temporary staff, he said.

These teachers were later absorbed into the teaching profession after passing their interviews with the Education Service Commission, said Ong.

“If the ministry could do that in the past, surely it can do the same now, rather than let these graduates sit idly at home.”

Ong said the solution is for the ministry to allow around 400 fresh graduates to fill in as temporary teachers instead of waiting for March.

He said although the ministry has helped improve the teacher shortages in Chinese vernacular schools, it could do more by giving the schools more funding to hire temporary teachers.

Teacher and staff shortages are a perennial problem in vernacular schools and a sore point for Chinese education activists.

Besides dealing with teacher attrition, the ministry also has to ensure that teachers sent to Chinese vernacular schools are conversant in Mandarin.

Jiao Zong has complained that the posting of many non-Mandarin speaking teachers at these schools has eroded their identity. – December 28, 2017.