NO special quota has been set for contract-of-service (COS) teachers in the one-off intake of Grade DG41 education service officers, Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said.

He said the priority in the selection of teachers is given to graduates with education majors.

“We don’t have the data on the number of graduates possessing education majors in the market. Because of that, we made a projection and submitted about 4,000 candidates with no education majors to the Public Service Department,” he said at a press conference on the abolition of the Form Three assessment examination in Putrajaya today.

“It was actually a shortlist, not a quota, of COS candidates.”

Radzi was commenting on allegations by several parties that the Education Service Commission and Education Ministry were not transparent in the results of the COS candidates’ interview that were released recently, besides claiming that the quota of 5,000 teachers had been reduced to 2,400.

The minister also stressed that each COS recruitment was done under scrutiny.

“There is a group of about 200 graduates with education majors… the Education Service Commission found them qualified but they have yet to receive their letters from the University Senate. It’s not fair if we neglect them because it’s not their fault,” he said.

“That’s why, technically, we took them in through the COS and it has nothing to do with COS (teachers) without education majors.”

On May 11, Radzi was reported to have said 2,400 vacancies in the one-off recruitment of 18,702 teachers will be filled by the COS teachers whose contracts are due to end this month. – Bernama, June 2, 2022.