500 vacancies in Chinese primary schools

ABOUT 500 vacancies are waiting to be filled in Chinese primary schools in Peninsular Malaysia when school reopens next week, Jiao Zong (United Chinese School Teachers Association) said, citing a survey conducted by the Federation of Chinese School Headmasters.
These posts are left vacant following the retirement as well as the resignations of a sizable number of school heads and teachers.
They are supposed to be filled by some 400 trainee teachers graduating at the end of this year.
However, the Education Ministry has indicated that these newly trained teachers will only be posted earliest by March, meaning some Chinese primary schools will face a shortage of teachers when school starts in 2018, Jiao Zong said in a statement released to the Chinese press on Tuesday, China Press reported today.
"It is understood that under-enrolled schools with less than 30 pupils will have to put pupils in two different standards together in the same class – Year 2 and 3 in one class, and Year 4 and 5 in another.
"Others with small classes will have to reduce the number of classes by combining two or more classes of similar standard into one. The excess teachers in these schools can be transferred to schools facing a shortage of teaching staff," said the statement.
"But this is far from enough to address the large number of vacancies that need to be filled immediately when school reopens."
Jiao Zong urged the ministry to take a serious view of the matter and take remedial actions, including allocating enough funds for temporary teachers to be hired to fill the vacant posts.