KUCHING – Teachers in the country should be given priority to get the Covid-19 vaccine after frontliners, said the Sarawak Teachers Union today.
Its president Adam Parkash Abdullah said this was in line with Unicef’s recommendation that teachers be given priority for the vaccine once it is available.
“Teachers should be given priority after frontliners, as recommended by Unicef, due to their risk of getting infected with Covid-19,” he said today.
Adam also urged the relevant authorities to provide high-speed internet access to all schools in Sarawak and provide internet data allowances to teachers to help them conduct online classes.
He said the issues of poor network coverage, internet costs, and device affordability among students were still very significant in the state.
“Some teachers have to use their own mobile data (to conduct online classes), which can be very costly,” he said.
Adam said the union also suggested that more Sarawakian teachers be trained as religious teachers through the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme.
He said this is to overcome the shortage of religious teachers in the state when teachers from the peninsula are transferred to their state of choice.
The union also called for more schools to be built in Bintulu to meet the growing demand in the district.
Currently, there are 25 primary schools, six secondary schools, and one vocational college in Bintulu. – Bernama, December 20, 2020
