Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein took the National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) to task over its suggestion to relax the academic qualification requirement for teacher training colleges to enable more men to enter.

He said the union viewed the issue in a narrow context and stressed on the importance of maintaining quality.

"To me, quality is important because even if 100 per cent (of the teachers) were women but we can churn out 98 percent (of the students) without problems and we can tackle the other two per cent, then we can churn out outstanding students capable of competing at the global level," he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report today.

The minister said the status of the teaching profession would be affected if the academic qualification for entry was relaxed.

"What is important is not the quantity but the quality. How do you uphold the dignity of our teachers (if the conditions were relaxed)?" he posed.

In order to uphold the dignity of the teaching profession, he said the government must ensure that teachers in the country were "the best of the best".

Cannot compete

NUTP president Ismail Nihat had put forward the proposal as male applicants for teacher training colleges generally could not compete with female applicants who were better qualified.

He said currently it was estimated that 70 per cent of the total of 289,766 teachers in the country were women.

However, Hishammuddin said the issue of women teachers outnumbering men could not be resolved by relaxing the qualification for entry.

He described the proposal as a "short cut" which would only tarnish the dignity of the teaching profession in future.

On the issue of the Proficiency Level Test (PTK), Hishammuddin said he was discussing the matter with the Public Service Department (JPA).

"Give me time to discuss with the JPA on the best approach in tackling the issue and the outcome will be made known to all those concerned," he said.

Hishammuddin said he did not consider the issue as a major problem but the way the PTK was conducted was causing uneasiness among the teachers.