W. Sumatra lacks school teachers

PADANG, West Sumatra: The quality of elementary education is being compromised in West Sumatra due to a shortage of teachers, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

There is a shortage of 4,821 elementary school teachers in West Sumatra, leading to some teachers being forced to teach subjects that are out of their field, such as religion and physical education.

The province has only 23,601 elementary school teachers, while demand reaches 28,422 teachers, said Zaiful Zakaria, the chief of the data and statistics section with the West Sumatra Education Office. The shortage of teachers in the province is due to a lack of funds, said Zaiful.

In the meantime, education offices in regental and mayoralty governments have been instructed to produce data on the number of teachers at every school in their respective regions. With the data, the government can transfer teachers to schools that lack teachers. -- Antara