THE Education Ministry projects the recruitment of 16,886 to 20,081 new teachers in the next five years, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying said the ministry projection for the period 2023 to 2027 for secondary and primary schools was based on data on December 31 last year.

“The MOE will always check the projection data from time to time, based on needs,” she said in her reply to a question from Saifuddin Abdullah (Indera Mahkota-PN) on the projection of teacher recruitment from 2023 to 2027 during a question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

In the meantime, Lim said from 2021 to January this year, MOE recruited 22,327 teachers in 148 areas of specialisation through the subject cluster method for the one-off recruitment of teachers, as a strategy to address the shortage of teachers.

She said the areas of specialisation given attention included English, Bahasa Melayu, Islamic Education, Mathematics and History, with the recruitment process continuing for this year and beyond to fill vacancies at the school.

To a supplementary question from Saifuddin, who wanted to know if the government would continue with the subject cluster method, she replied in the affirmative because there are vacancies that need to be filled with required subject options.

“We will continue and will also add a few more steps. We are indeed reviewing and making recommendations and we will announce when we have a decision,” she said.

Meanwhile, in answering a separate question from Sh Mohmed Puzi Sh Ali (Pekan-BN) on dilapidated schools, Lim said the MOE’s priority is for buildings that needed to be upgraded or be completely replaced.

She said currently, almost 80% of the number of dilapidated schools are in Sabah and Sarawak.

“This is also in response to the call of the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for MOE to focus on repairing and upgrading dilapidated schools, especially in Sabah and Sarawak,” she said. – Bernama, March 27, 2023.