Govt to contract 6,000 teachers

PADANG, West Sumatra: Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said his office would soon contract 6,000 teachers to overcome the current shortage of teachers across the country.

He said in Padang Panjang on Saturday that if the plan worked well in the initial stage, it would be followed by further stages to gradually address the shortage of teachers.

The teachers will be posted evenly throughout all provinces with the exception of Jakarta where the teacher shortage problem is not very serious. Wardiman did not elaborate on the extent of the teacher shortage.

Experts have said the problem is not a shortage of teachers but the poor posting distribution. There are areas with a surplus of teachers and others with only a handful.

The teacher contract system is expected to help reduce unemployment among the 8.6 million job seekers in the country, Wardiman was quoted by Antara as saying. (swe)