The performance of graduate teachers from Bachelor in Teaching Programme (PISMP) offered at Teacher Education Institutes (IPGs) is at an excellent level and meets the schools’ needs.

Senior Minister of Education Dr Radzi Jidin said based on the assessment conducted by school administrators from the period of 2015 until 2019, the IPG graduate teachers had an average score of 92 per cent and above.

“The MOE (Ministry of Education) implements an assessment method on the PISMP teachers by obtaining feedback from school administrators one year after they had started teaching and generally (school administrators) are satisfied with the teachers’ performance and quality,” he said during Minister’s Question Time at the Dewan Rakyat here today.

He was replying to a question raised by Dr Maszlee Malik (Bebas-Simpang Renggam) who wanted to know the measures and initiatives taken by the ministry in maintaining and improving the quality of PISMP so that the standard of teaching will always be excellent.

Radzi said MOE was always committed to empowering teacher’s education by strengthening the PISMP programme including its candidate selection process and curriculum in order to produce trained and competent teachers.

Radzi said starting in 2013 candidates for the programme were selected among students who had obtained an excellent grade in a minimum of five subjects in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination apart from meeting the requirements of their chosen specialisations.

“Subsequently, all candidates who have met the academic qualifications will have to undergo the Teacher Candidates Qualification Test (UKCG), where successful candidates will be called for an interview. The candidates are selected based on merit points covering academic qualifications, curriculum and their performance during the interview sessions,” he said.

This showed that only the best candidates would be selected to undergo the training programme, Radzi added.

On the aspect of its curriculum, the minister said MOE would continue to improve PISMP’s quality by reviewing the whole curriculum every four years so it would be in line with current needs.

He added the latest review started last year and expected to complete in 2021 and the new curriculum would be used starting June 2022.

At the same time, the ministry is also making improvements on the fields that are being taught in the programme, taking into account current developments such as the introduction of the IPG Digital Learning Policy to enable the student teachers to meet the needs of the fourth industrial revolution, he added.

-- BERNAMA