The influx of untrained support teachers (GSTT) in several secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur is due to the shortage of teachers in social science and Malay language.

Federal Territory education director Sulaiman Wak said 913 GSTT teachers had been sent to several secondary schools in the city to teach History, Geography and Malay Language.

"Many presume that the best teachers are centred in the town areas, when it is here (city) that there is shortage of trained teachers for subjects like science and a few others," he told reporters after opening an education seminar at SM Sentul Utama in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said there were also shortage of teachers in Mandarin and Tamil in several national type schools.

Sulaiman said there were several factors for the shortage of trained teachers in schools in the town areas.

"In big towns like Kuala Lumpur, many parents are working and always busy. Therefore, the burden on the teachers is more than those in the rural areas.

"This is possibly one of the factors why trained teachers are not keen to serve in the town areas," he added.

In another development, Sulaiman reminded the administrators of four High Performance Schools in the Federal Territory not to be carried away with the status.

He said the status would be withdrawn if the schools failed to maintain their academic performance and meet the Malaysian Education Quality Standard.

Schools which did not get into the list should work hard to meet the standard, he added.

- Bernama