The Malaysian Insight

PUTRAJAYA would have a crisis on its hands if it did not address the growing number of teachers leaving the service, the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong) warned.

The warning came after Education Ministry (MOE) statistics showed the number of teachers who opted for early retirement increasing the past three years.

Jiao Zong president Cheah Lek Aee said the situation was not critical yet, but the figures are worrying.

“In 2020, 4,212 teachers opted for early retirement. In 2021, there were 4,389 teachers and last year, it rose to 5,306.

“Teachers are opting to retire early, causing an educator shortage in the country,” he said.

Cheah said the MOE’s 2022 data showed there were about 230,000 primary school teachers, with around 23,000 above the age of 55.

“That is 10% of the total, and this 10% will retire in the next five years. Some might not even wait till they are 60.”

He said it was something of a norm now for teachers to quit once they reach 50 over dissatisfaction with work.

“These senior teachers have been burdened with non-teaching tasks, resulting in them spending a significant amount of time on administrative work,” said Cheah.

“The frequent changes and flip-flopping in policies have left many (teachers) confused as well.”

Cheah said district and state education offices have also piled unreasonable demands on teachers.

“The demands from the district and state education offices are placing heavy burdens and stress on school principals, vice-principals, and teachers,” he said.

“It is making them tired and fuelling their desire to quit early. Teachers should focus on what they are trained to do, which is teaching.

“Some education offices deliberately transfer teachers in the middle of the school year.”

He pointed to the actions of the Kuala Lumpur education office, which this month transferred several teachers who had served for more than 20 years in one school to other schools.

“These transfers disrupted the administrative and teaching arrangements at their previous schools, which in turn affected students’ learning and the operation of schools.

“Most of all, it created a lot of unhappiness.”

Cheah said such issues were raised with the MOE many times but “nothing happened”.

“It’s a long-standing issue and bodies representing teachers and the teaching profession have raised it with the MOE time and again.

“They have even made suggestions on how to resolve the issue.”

Cheah said the MOE needed to review its administrative policies, particularly those that have given rise to resentment.

He said there were many impractical policies that were implemented without consideration of feasibility.

“The only impact they had was to make the teachers unhappy.”

Shortage of 20,000 teachers

The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) said the country lacked over 20,000 teachers.

Its president Aminuddin Awang said in a statement that when once only schools in remote areas faced teacher shortages, the problem had spread to urban areas.

“Now, it can be said almost all schools in the country are facing the same problem because there are no new teachers deployed to replace retired teachers.”

Fouzi Singon, his secretary-general, said the trend of teachers seeking early retirement started in 2018 when the MOE introduced digital transformations for education.

“The older, senior teachers who were not so tech-literate and not too proficient with new digital tools were stressed, leading to their decisions to retire early.

“Teachers often have to work late into the night, and some even work on weekends, which adds to their stress.”

However, former education director-general Ali Mutfi Mohamed did not believe the shortage of teachers was a major problem.

He recently said the lack of educators was “a temporary issue”.

He believed the MOE would fill the vacant positions soon, and that various efforts were being taken to address the shortcoming.

“If there is a shortage of teachers now, I believe this is not accurate, because the MOE has set targets in this regard, and public and private universities offer teacher training programmes.”

He said the shortage was not due to the MOE failing to appoint qualified teachers, but rather due to teachers opting for early retirement.

“When these things happen, teacher vacancies cannot be filled. However, from my perspective, the MOE has always had accurate … data.”

Last month, Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying said the MOE would address the issue of teacher shortages at Chinese and Tamil schools.

She said the MOE obtained data from Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kedah, and Perak, and would collect information from Johor this month.

“The shortage of teachers is not limited to Chinese and Tamil schools. It also affects national schools.

“The subjects lacking teachers are English, Malay, and Islamic Education,” said Lim. – September 28, 2023.