PETALING JAYA: The Orang Asli Youth Council has urged the government to undertake an intensive study of the ways of life of different tribal communities at it tries to raise the educational levels of Orang Asli children.
The council’s president, Clive Allen Williams Hunt, said Orang Asli communities living in urban areas had needs that were different from the needs of those living in rural areas.
Hunt told FMT that those living in urban and suburban areas needed to be involved in programmes that would boost the knowledge they had acquired from social interaction and exposure to technology.
Those living in rural and remote areas could perhaps be introduced to vocational education to take advantage of their “unique skill sets”.
But he also said there could not be one specific solution for all rural Orang Asli communities because of the uniqueness of the culture in each location.
He was commenting on a government announcement that it would work towards reducing the number of Orang Asli students who drop out of school after finishing primary education.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P Waytha Moorthy recently said lack of motivation was a reason for the high dropout rate although this has been reduced from 20% in 2015 to 17% in 2019.
Hunt said “lack of understanding of the importance of education” was a better way of putting it than “lack of motivation”.
“This is because they been living in the same environment all their lives and have not been exposed to the outside world.
“But this applies only to rural and remote areas. For the rest, we need to really study their problems before we can come out with some conclusion,” he said.
He urged the government to consult NGOs in its planning and the execution of its plans.
“NGOs have been working with the communities at the grassroots level and they have important data that can be shared to highlight which areas require immediate action and which areas can be used as models for planning.
“And the results from roundtable discussions, combined with research from universities, can be presented to stakeholders to create suitable programmes,” he said.
Orang Asli rights activist Colin Nicholas said poverty was the main reason for the high dropout rate.
He said many parents could not afford to send their children to school.
If there was a lack of motivation, it would be in the teachers, he said.
Nicholas acknowledged that some teachers were dedicated to their jobs, but he said others were not interested in teaching “maybe because they never wanted to be posted in the interior”.
He suggested that the government transfer out those who were not interested in teaching in Orang Asli areas and replace them with the more motivated.
A human rights activist based in Sarawak, Peter John Jaban, warned that rural Dayak students would “remain poorly equipped for a world in which technology is playing an increasing role” if the government did not upgrade provisions for education in the state to be at par with Peninsular Malaysia.
He said Dayak students from rural families were still travelling miles to school except those who had been “shipped off to boarding schools, losing their link to their traditional communities and indigenous lifestyles”.
Schools were often poorly staffed and poorly equipped and housed in buildings that were often in dangerous condition, he added.
Jaban called for investment in educational technology and rural internet provision.
“Sarawak has just as many bright students as any other country and they deserve a real chance to shine.
“In fact, every student needs to be given the skills required for the future, not for a world that is already obsolete. The digital revolution has provided mobility and flexibility as well as a wealth of new career options.
“If the new ruling government wants to take part in this revolution, it must have a revolution in education,” he said. - FMT
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