‘Soft’ men won’t be recruited as teachers

The Star

EFFEMINATE or “soft” men will not be recruited as teachers and their application to pursue a degree in education in local universities may also be rejected, Berita Harian reported.

Quoting Higher Education Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Dr Adham Baba, the report said all candidates for teaching would be required to sit for a test called the Malaysian Educators Selection Inventory (MEdSI) and undergo interviews.

He said the move was not to discriminate on “soft” men but was an approach to help them realise that they have deviated from the original path in life.

Prior to this, Dr Adham said recruitment of candidates to pursue a degree in education would only be based on academic excellence and candidates were not required to sit for the MEdSI test or go through an interview.

The daily said the matter became an issue after schools were allegedly flooded with “soft” men, and added that such a scenario would hamper the image of the teaching profession and national education.

“Beginning this year, all candidates interested in teaching would have to sit for the test and go through an interview.

“Those who pass the criteria, and that includes not having gender confusion, will be allowed to participate in courses pertaining to education,” he said.

Asked to define “soft”, Dr Adham said he was not referring to well-mannered male teachers but to men who were heterosexual but behaved like women by putting on make-up or by using false eyelashes.

“As an educator who is also a role model to students, they should not reflect such an image to students. If these are our group of educators, what will happen to our future generation?,” said Dr Adham.

> Mingguan Malaysia reported that the manpower department of the Human Resources Ministry recorded close to 42,000 job vacancies up to July 16.

Minister Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn said the department had registered a total of 93,068 job seekers for the same period.

“Many of them are graduates, former army and police personnel, retirees and the disabled,” he said when launching a job carnival in Kepala Batas, Penang.

Perak state manpower department head K. Sritharen read out Dr Fong’s speech on his behalf.

Dr Fong also urged employers to register with the Electronic Labour Exchange system set up by the ministry to help them select workers in an easy and fast manner.