Friday January 28, 2011
Reports by NELSON BENJAMIN, CHRISTINA TAN, MOHD FARIK ZOLKEPLI and DESIREE TRESA GASPER
LABIS: The plight of some 2,000 new teachers who took the Bachelor of Teaching Degree Programme (PISMP) has been settled as the programme has been accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said.
He said teachers could find out their respective posting areas via the Education Ministry’s portal from today.
“This issue is solved now and we hope all parties would stop spinning the matter,” Dr Wee added.
He was commenting on the first batch of 1,950 teachers from the programme who were in a quandary as they had yet to receive their postings after graduating in November.
The problem arose because the accreditation of the PISMP was pending and the affected teachers could not teach until they had received the approval of the Education Service Commission.
“The teachers can report to work in their respective schools on Feb 7 after the Chinese New Year break,” he told reporters at the Labis MCA office yesterday.
Dr Wee said the ministry received notification from MQA on Wednesday morning about the accreditation.
The Education Department would inform the teachers, the latest by Tuesday, about their respective school postings.
On the Education Ministry’s recent circular to all state education departments that Year One and Year Two pupils in vernacular schools should be taught Bahasa Malaysia by bilingual teachers, Dr Wee said all the relevant parties had been informed to adhere to the Cabinet decision.
It was reported that the Cabinet in late November agreed to implement the policy, and the circular took effect on Jan 1.
Dr Wee said the ministry issued the directive through the Education Department director-general’s office on Dec 12 last year.
He added that a check by the ministry showed all schools were following the directive.
“If there is any information or complaints, we will investigate,” he said.