Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mah Hang Soon (right) speaks during a joint press conference with Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali (left) in Putrajaya September 22, 2021. — Bernama pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — If 4,360 teachers requested early retirement from a total of 409,997 nationwide, what percentage of teachers have requested early retirement?
Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik posed this question to Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mah Hang Soon in Parliament on November 9, and received a written reply today.
However, the independent lawmaker found the official answer incredulous. And so he decided to share it on Twitter.
“Written answer from the Deputy Education minister to me regarding the issue of teachers retiring early. Let’s do some math.
“4,360 from 409,997 = ?”
“MoE’s answer 0.01%….” he posted this afternoon.
Those familiar with math problems would know to calculate by taking 4,360 teachers from the total of 409,997 and dividing them up, then multiplying that by 100. The answer would be 1.06.
Several other Twitter users have since responded to Maszlee’s tweet. Among those who responded with the same number is education reform group Page Malaysia.
Another Twitter user who uses the account handle whimsiqa rounded it to 1.1 per cent.
Maszlee also shared a picture of the written parliamentary reply from the deputy minister that contained his original question.
According to the written reply from the ministry, as many as 3,044 said they were no longer interested in the job, 766 cited family reasons, 411 stopped due to health concerns, 83 cited the work load, and 56 said it was for personal reasons.