Kupang needs 5,900 teachers

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: Head of the East Nusa Tenggara National Education Office Jhon Manulangga said on Monday that the province faces a severe shortage of school teachers, forcing more than one in 10 elementary school students to drop out.

Jhon revealed that the province needs around 5,900 teachers to fill the shortage.

Jhon said this was a major factor in the increased number of dropouts from elementary and junior high schools.

He said that 14.5 percent of elementary school children, from a total of 611,376 had dropped out of school, while the junior highschool drop out rate was 4.2 percent from a total of 126,143 students.

The total number of people in the province who were illiterate or had never had any formal education stands at about 376,000.(30)