KUALA LANGAT: Almost 14,000 teachers have been hired under a special one-off recruitment drive that aims to take in 18,702 education service officers.

       Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said over 4,000 vacancies remained since the exercise began in July, with the new teachers placed in Sarawak, Sabah, Selangor and Johor from October.

       He said typically, there are only 3,000 to 4,000 teaching vacancies a year resulting from retirement and other reasons.

       “However, when (these vacancies) are left empty for a long time, there is a lot of pressure on the school system with a lot of schools not having enough teachers,” he said after a ceremony in SMK Bandar Saujana Putra here Friday (March 18).

       He added that there were already about 18,000 existing vacancies for teachers when he took up the portfolio in March 2020.

       Radzi also said 2022 had seen a high number of teacher transfers approved.

       “I believe more than 55% of applications have been approved,” he said, adding that the usual figure is between 20% and 30%.

       He said priority was given to teachers who had been waiting a long time for transfer requests to be approved, following which new teachers would be assigned to areas in need.

       The transfer exercise also helped solve the problem of teacher shortages in the affected schools, he added.

       “Hopefully, once we complete this one-off recruitment drive, we will be able to resolve (future vacancies) immediately with the cooperation of the Education Service Commission,” he added.