KUCHING, Nov 24 ― A total of 1,571 primary and secondary school teacher vacancies in Sarawak will be filled next year, the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly was told today.

Deputy Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Annuar Rapa’ee said 819 secondary school teacher vacancies will be filled by February and 752 primary teachers will be filled by June.

"The issues of teacher shortage in Sarawak must be resolved as soon as possible. As of Sept 30, the shortage of teachers stands at 3,076. Of the total, 819 are for secondary school and 2,257 are for primary school,” he said.

He was replying to a supplementary question from Wilfred Yap Yau Sin (GPS-Kota Sentosa) who wanted to know the state’s strategies to address the shortage of teachers.

Annuar said apart from new teacher arrivals next year, his ministry also proposes the recruitment of non-teacher graduates as contract teachers to the Ministry of Education. ― Bernama