It is undeniable that when MCA leaders were the deputy education ministers, we had implemented various policies in addressing the issue of teacher shortage in Chinese primary schools (SJKC).

It is very unfair for the United Chinese Schools Committee Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) deputy chairperson Chow Siew Hon to blame MCA for causing teacher the shortage issue for the last 50 years.

In 2012, a special committee on the shortage of teachers in SJKC had held roundtable discussions and formulated a 1:1.5 teacher policy for SJKC with a ratio of 1.5 teachers per class. The teacher shortage is expected to be resolved in 2016. The 1,294 SJKCs nationwide will no longer need to hire temporary teachers in future.

MCA is also unhappy with the teacher shortage happening now. We hope that the Education Ministry will continue to execute the policy formulated.

In the past, MCA leaders had pushed for the revival of the 18-month teacher training course for temporary teachers with university qualification (KPLIKDC) to train them as full-time teachers to address the teacher shortage issue.

We thank Chow for the reminder but we must stress that the number of teachers needed in 2008 was 4,976 and we had managed to reduce the number to 1,874 last year.

The issue has drastically improved and akin to Dongzong, MCA, too, wishes for the same goal, which is to reduce the statistics of teacher shortage to zero.

MCA will continue to use various political conduits to address the issue, follow up and push for various policies in the Education Ministry to resolve the issue once and for all.


CHONG SIN WOON is MCA Youth national chairperson.