BY NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD
The Ministry of Education (KPM) announced they had approved a total of 2,261 applications for exchange by ‘guru duka lara’ from 6,636 applications in that category.
‘Guru duka lara’ are the teachers that are away from their partners.
This was announced by the Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid. He said that the approval is for the period from January to June this year with the total of 1,421 teachers will be placed in primary schools and 840 in secondary schools throughout the country.
The ‘guru duka lara’ exchange scheme is very good for teachers who have long applied for an exchange. But recent allegations of a handful of new teachers were placed in a school less than three months to get permission to exchange, apparently the teachers have contact in the ministry
This will lead to dissatisfaction with other teachers who do not have a contacts, whether it is political people or the people within. The question is, is this a strategy to garner votes among teachers ahead of the 14th general election?
Referring to the teacher management system (EGtukar), the need for exchange between regions and states is based on the importance of service and vacancies in the district or state applied.
Based on the system, the approval decisions made based on one vacancy for one choice only.
If we look at the status of teacher exchanges on the website of the Ministry of Education, the number of applications are about 15, 420 people. For the Secondary School Teachers Exchange applications were 6,489 people, while the numbers of Primary School Teachers Exchange application were 8.931 people.
In total, there are still many teachers who are waiting for their application to approved by the ministry. However, in resolving the issue of ‘guru duka lara, what are the initiatives taken by the government itself?
Does the ministry will strive to fulfil the request of teachers to serve in their respective states or follow their partner in order to be close to their loved ones.
For me, the ministry may not approve all the change in the short term because of the application in several states each year will exceed vacancies in a particular state applied by the teachers.
Therefore, in this issue there are still many applicants who do not understand the mechanism used by the ministry. Years of service, status, and distance, hardly guarantees their success in the exchange.
I hope that the Ministry will restructure the exchange procedure in order to have a clearer, transparent and more reliable mechanism.
* Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is KEADILAN Youth Leader
There is no clear mechanism for the teacher exchange system
