I am one of the 24 candidates affected by the unfair change in policy by the Education Ministry over the employment of self-sponsored KPLI (Kursus Perguruan Lepas Ijazah-KDC) graduates as teachers in the national schools.

I applied to be a trained teacher (GS - Guru Sandaran Terlatih) as I have been teaching in a private school for more than four years. I was called for an interview in November 2010 and was informed that I was selected for posting to a national school via the Education Ministry website in December 2010.  

According to the portal, the waiting period for the posting would expire on June 30, 2011.

However, in March 2011, a Mr Razali, who is an assistant director at the Unit Bahagian Sekolah Menengah Harian, informed that our posting had been put on hold as the ministry was of the opinion that it did not promise KPLI candidates any guaranteed admission as teachers.

He also informed us that an “appeal” has been made to the Bahagian Pendidikan Guru (BPG) on behalf of all 24 candidates and that we should wait for the outcome. As no news was forthcoming, I paid a visit to BPG in May 2011.

I was informed that there is a new  policy effective January 2011, that self-sponsored candidates will not be eligible for posting to national schools. I was also informed that another appeal had been made to the Education director-general on this matter and that we should wait for the outcome.

The waiting period for posting (June 2011) has since expired and we are still kept in limbo. It is extremely unfair as the new policy which came into force in January 2011 is made to operate retrospectively on those who cleared the selection process in 2010.

I also do not understand the rationale behind this policy as the Education Ministry has acknowledged the need for more teachers.