The Education Ministry is confident of achieving its target of 90 percent of primary school teachers in Sabah being locals by 2018, said its minister Mahdzir Khalid.

He said the ministry was giving the assurance that the target would be achieved, reaching the 90:10 ratio set by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak whereby 90 percent of school teachers in Sabah and Sarawak would be locals.

Mahdzir said according to the ministry's records, so far the figure stood at 82.4 percent .

"By the end of this year, we (the ministry) will gain an estimated three per cent more locals as teachers in all primary schools in Sabah," he told reporters after launching the Penampang Umno division delegates conference in Kota Kinabalu today.

However, Mahdzir said the ministry was making efforts to find the best way of ensuring that all teachers in secondary schools in Sabah were locals as to date, only 74.5 percent had been achieved.

"We will continue looking for the best way to increase the percentage of Sabahans teaching in secondary schools.

"This year, there was an increase of about 2.5 percent in secondary school teachers who are locals," he said.

Mahdzir said the ministry hoped that Sabahan teachers who had been given placing in their own state cooperate by being prepared to serve in rural schools.

In a separate development, Mahdzir said more than 380 dilapidated schools in Sabah would be renovated through the Industrialised Building System (IBS) to provide better learning facilities for students in the state.

This year, he said, the ministry had started work on 45 such schools.

Mahdzir also said the ministry had approved an allocation to build a new school, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kipovo Moyog in the Penampang district, and will appoint a contractor to begin work by the end of this year or early next year.

- Bernama