PARLIAMENT The recruitment of trained English teachers from India under the School Improvement Specialist Coaches (SISC +) programme will be finalised soon, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan said the teachers would be placed in several rural schools across the country, including ‘hot spot’ schools to help raise competency level of local English teachers in line with the Upholding the Malay Language and Strengthening Command of English (MBMMBI) policy.
“It had been on the ministry’s agenda to bring in trained teachers from India in the near future, to improve command of the language in rural schools in the country,” he said.
He was replying to Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (BN-Setiu) who enquired about the ministry’s proposal to bring in trained English teachers from India.
Kamalanathan said with the SISC+ programme teachers would be made aware of effective teaching practices and ways of managing the classrooms more efficiently.
In reply to Che Mohamad Zulkifly’s question on quality status of education nationwide with the first wave of the Malaysia Education Blueprint (PPPM) 2015 coming to an end, Kamalanathan said there were some encouraging early achievements.
“Of the 1.3 million pupils who went through Linus 2.0 screening programme last year, 98.7 percent of Year Three pupils succeeded in mastering basic Malay language literacy, 99 percent in basic numeracy, while 83 percent of Year Two pupils mastered basic English literacy,” he said.
He added that last year a total of 62 intervention modules from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) were developed as a long term measure in setting national curriculum standards and assessments.
Kamalanathan said in an effort to elevate the teaching profession, requirements for recruitment of new teachers had been tightened and 100 percent of new teachers recruited in 2014 obtained at least 5As in the Certificate of Education.
“Those who signed up for Teaching English as a Second Language or TESL programme are required to attain grade A in English,” he said.
The implementation of various initiatives under the first wave of the Malaysian Education Blueprint was to reduce the significant achievement gap between urban and rural schools, in addition to yielding more success not only in terms of academic performance but also improving the socio-economic gap by 2020.
- Bernama
