SURPLUS OF CHINESE AND MALAY-MEDIUM TEACHERS

Mr Ng Kah Ting asked the Minister for Home Affairs and Education, in view of the surplus of teachers in the Chinese stream, what measures his Ministry will take to contrive optimal utilisation of their services.

Mr Chai Chong Yii (for the Minister for Home Affairs and Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, with the swing towards enrolment of pupils in English-medium schools over the last few years, a situation has been created where there is a shortage of English-medium teachers and a surplus of Chinese and Malay-medium teachers. These surplus teachers who are able to be retrained to teach in the English medium, particularly in the areas of most shortage, namely Science and Mathematics are being retrained and redeployed to teach in the English medium. Others are being redeployed to English-medium schools to take second language classes as well as classes in physical education, arts and crafts, education for living, ethics, civics, etc. With the introduction of the Basic Course from this year, a number of teachers will be required to take the Basic Course classes. All surplus teachers, as a result of the swing towards enrolment of pupils in the English-medium schools, will be suitably redeployed and none will be made redundant as a result of this.