It said the extension was made to allow the Education Services Commission (ESC) to arrange interview sessions and make permanent appointments for teachers who meet the requirements.

Meanwhile, interim teachers who were recruited before 2019 were told to ensure they fulfilled the ESC’s terms so that the ministry would be able to certify their applications before submitting them to the commission for interviews.

The announcement by the ministry came months after interim teachers who have been teaching for the last three years complained about not being given permanent posts.

FMT reported in March that they were told they would not be called for interviews for permanent posts as they did not have a Band 5 in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). This was despite having slogged over the last three years to obtain their diploma in education online through government universities due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

An affected teacher told FMT that the interim teachers wrote an appeal to the education ministry and the ESC to extend their contracts, which were set to expire in April.

They asked that the ministry absorb them permanently on the condition that they would acquire Band 5 in MUET or other equivalent qualifications – like the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) – within two years.

The teacher said they were all promised when they started that they would be absorbed into the government service after the contract if they got through the diploma in education.

Recently, about 18,000 teachers were recruited in a one-off intake by the ESC.