EYE ON AUTONOMY, SARAWAK NOW WANTS ITS OWN EDUCATION MINISTRY

The Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) which represents over 60 per cent of teachers serving throughout the state has urged the state government to create its own education minister’s post to handle issues related to education.

At the moment there is no full-fledged education portfolio in Sarawak and Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Fatimah Abdullah has been tasked with overseeing education matters.

But Fatimah has her hands full with her own duties in her own ministry.

STU president Jisin Nyud argued that with the state having its own ministry, it will enhance and bring about a more focused attention on the state’s unique education issues besides fulfilling Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s call for the devolution of powers in the field of education.

Said Nyud, “If there is a full minister to deal with education (at the state level) the voices of the teachers in the state will be better heard. Definitely, because that is what our CM wants, especially with teaching of Science and Mathematics in English and other subjects as well.”

At present there are 41,000 teachers throughout the state, of which 25,000 or almost 61 per cent are full members of the Sarawak Teachers Union.

Nyud also said that it is understood that there is a shortage of teaching staff at the district level throughout the state.

Education has always been the backbone and the mainstay among the essential needs of the community and our society at large – be it in the national language, in the vernacular schools like Mandarin, or at the many private institutions of intermediate and higher learning in English.

It is tragic to recall that the present “brain-drain” started soon after the federal government had imposed a national language only policy at all institutions of learning in the 1970s.

Only very recently have we seen more local branches of international schools and universities being allowed to be set up with local branches and campuses, thus reducing the number of students who are forced to go overseas to further their studies.

It is a fact of life that of those students who had gone overseas, a very high percentage of them have not returned. They have adapted to the lifestyles in the countries that they have studied in, and have also enjoyed a more open society and have been exposed to more freely available opportunities for employment.

This has cost Malaysia, and Sarawak in particular, a huge drain in human talent and skills.

For those who have acquired skills taught in the national language, they have been limited to opportunities within the country, which have also impeded the growth and progress of our education standards when compared to surrounding neighbours like Singapore, Indonesia and even Brunei.

Adenan must seriously pay heed to STU’s call to establish our very own ministry of education, with a suitable minister to head it. There is also the urgent need to establish our own rules to monitor the progress of our immediate plans for the revival of English as a medium of teaching in our schools.

Better late than never. - http://theantdaily.com/