Govt to send teachers to Malaysia

JAKARTA: The government will send around 250 teachers to Malaysia in August to provide education for migrant workers' children, who have no access to Malaysian public schools.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said on Tuesday, Malaysian law does not allow Indonesian migrant workers' children to accompany them. Therefore, they cannot send their children to Malaysian schools.

"We had a discussion with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi recently about this problem and he agreed that Malaysia would set up schools for the workers' children but we must provide the teachers," said Kalla.

Currently there are approximately 10,000 migrant workers' children aged below 15 years old in Malaysia, especially in the eastern part of the country. Indonesian teachers to be sent to Malaysia will mostly teach in elementary and junior high schools. -- JP