More teachers to be recruited in one-off intake exercise - Radzi

He estimates the intake will exceed the usual figure of 4,000 graduates recruited yearly, which is a common practice at the ministry.

"Prior to COVID-19, around 4,000 to 5,000 graduates were recruited each year to fill vacancies. When the cluster system was introduced, it gave us the opportunity to increase teacher intake.

"So now we are trying to increase the figure and this effort is being done by the Education Services Commission (SPP)," he told reporters after a discourse programme with the Orang Asli community here today.

It was reported that 18,702 Grade DG41 Education Service Officers had been recruited on a one-off basis in a special recruitment drive to fill teaching vacancies in MOE schools under the SPP.

Elaborating, Radzi said the Subject Cluster method has also helped to address problems such as backlogs and mismatches in the recruitment of teachers.

"The backlog issue has been going on for many years because of supply shortage, while the mismatch problem was addressed when graduates with certain areas of specialisation were allowed to fill vacancies in other subjects categorised under the same cluster," he said.

Meanwhile, Radzi said the ministry received 69 complaints related to bullying since the 'Aduan Buli' portal was launched last Thursday, adding that all the complaints would be reviewed before any action could be taken.

"The most important thing about this system is that we keep the information confidential. We don't want this confidential information to go out because then it will put the children under pressure. (As of now) some cases have been taken action while some complaints are still under investigation," he said.