KOTA SAMARAHAN: Five teachers’ education institutes or IPGs nationwide, including the Batu Lintang campus in Kuching and Gaya campus in Sabah, are tasked by the Education Ministry to produce English teachers with niche teaching skills.The ministry’s IPG rector Datuk Dr Haili Dolhan, who stated this yesterday, said this was to ensure there were enough good English teachers to be deployed to rural schools.

He said this needed to be done by 2012 when the new system for extra hours for English classes was fully implemented, and also due to the fact English was identified as the weakest subject for students in rural schools.

“We want to train more English teachers especially for the rural areas.

“This is so that the rural school children can enjoy the same benefit as their peers in the urban areas,” he told reporters after the 11th Convocation for IPG Tun Abdul Razak campus here.

A total of 320 teachers received their diplomas at yesterday’s convocation which was officiated by Housing and Urban Development Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.

According to Haili, who hails from Sarawak, one of the ways to produce enough number of English teachers is to train those who did not take English as option in IPG, to be proficient in English.

“This year, we are taking in 5,000 teacher trainees who are SPM school leavers for the English degree course, which takes five years and half to complete, including one and half years for preparatory course.

“One of the IPGs with the English course (Teaching English as a Second Language – TESL), is Batu Lintang campus,” he said.

To a question, Haili said there was no shortage of English teachers in the state.

“The only problem is redeployment of teachers. That’s why we are training more English teachers now,” he said, adding that the Education Ministry was also studying ways to encourage teachers to transfer to rural and interior areas.

Starting next year, the teaching time for English will be increased to 330 minutes a week, up from 240 minutes, in national primary and secondary schools.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister, who announced this on March 20, said school hours would not be increased, but would be adjusted to be more creative and enjoyable for students.

This was following the cabinet’s decision to come up with ways to strengthen the teaching and learning of the English language when the PPSMI (the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English) ceased to continue in 2012.

Source: The Borneo Post