Govt to contract 6,000 teachers

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)