MALACCA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday announced a better deal for the teaching profession, including incentive promotions for teachers, headmasters and education officers.

He said in line with the government's call to non-graduate teachers to pursue degree programmes, the government had agreed to consider the service during their non-graduate period to be upgraded from grade DG41 to DG44 on a time-based formula whereby each three years of service as a non-graduate teacher would be considered as a year's experience in DG41, subject to a maximum of three years (in DG41).

"This is an added incentive to the pay rise that was given by the government earlier," he said when opening this year's national-level Teachers Day celebration at Dewan Seri Negeri, Ayer Keroh here.

The announcement received thunderous applause from the 3,000 teachers present.

Present were Abdullah's wife Datin Paduka Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.
The prime minister also announced that based on the same consideration, the government had approved a proposal whereby non-graduate headmasters in the DG41 grade would be eligible for promotion to DG44 after serving three years.

After increasing the quota for the excellent teachers' scheme by 300 per cent in 2006, Abdullah said the government agreed to more improvements to it.

First, he said the service requirement for emplacement into the scheme would be reduced from the present seven years to five.

Second, officers promoted as excellent teachers in a particular grade may be considered for promotion to the next grade without needing to complete three years of full service.

Another incentive was improving the excellent headmasters' scheme.

In order for more non-graduate teachers to enjoy the scheme, the government has decided to set aside 10 per cent of the quota for senior assistants and teachers serving with the Education Ministry and state and district education departments on the condition that they must have shown exemplary service.

Abdullah also said the government had decided to upgrade district education officers from grades DG48 to DG52 and DG54 and streamline district education offices nationwide by abolishing the joint education offices in Sabah and Sarawak.

"This move will provide hundreds of promotional opportunities for teachers at the district level."

He said the government had also agreed to reintroduce the critical allowance for graduate teacher training officers (vocational) and post-diploma teacher training officers (vocational), backdated to January.

The prime minister said the government had also agreed to the restructuring of the Education Ministry, last done in 1995.

The initial stage would involve increasing the number of posts and upgrading staff in the higher management tier from grade 54 to Jusa A (top management group).

"As an example, all deputy education directors now will be uniformly graded as Jusa A instead of Jusa A, B, C and DG54 as previously."

Abdullah envisioned the same would happen at all levels in the ministry to further improve its delivery system.

Former deputy director-general of education, Datuk Rashidi Ramlan, 61; former Perak Education Department deputy director II, Datuk Dzulkarnain Abd Rahman, 69; and former teachers Abu Bakar Shawkat Ali, 63, and K. Krishnasamy, 68, received this year's teaching personalities award. - Bernama