Official bemoans teachers' skills

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: The head of the provincial education and culture office, J. Cornelius Mbeo, said here yesterday that 89.3 percent of the elementary school teachers in East Nusa Tenggara are unfit to teach as they lack the necessary academic qualifications.

According to Mbeo, out of the 27,648 elementary teachers teaching in 1,892 villages or subdistricts, only 2,941 have the required qualifications.

"That's why we're getting as many of them as possible to attend special teaching classes so they can have an equivalent credential to a diploma," he said as quoted by Antara.

There are an estimated 611,950 elementary school children in 4,033 schools in the province.

Despite the deficiencies, he argues that the process of education has been relatively successful in the province, evident in the fact that 80 percent of elementary school children continue on to high school. (mds)