Lack of well-trained teachers in 3 vital subjects
KUCHING: Sarawak lacks well-trained teachers for English, Mathematics and Science subjects, said Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin.
He said this deficiency was among the causes of the state's unsatisfactory performance in public examinations among the 16 states and federal territories in the country.
"Some of our teachers were not trained to teach English, Mathematics and Science but they are teaching these subjects in schools.
"So we cannot blame the teachers or the schools, we have to blame the system. The lack of teachers trained to teach English, Mathematics and Science is one of the factors why Sarawak did not perform well in public examinations," he said when declaring open the Sarawak Headmasters Conference (Southern Zone) 2018 at Imperial Hotel here yesterday.
As such, Manyin told headmasters who came across any qualified personnel who could train teachers in the mentioned subjects to recommend them to the ministry.
"We can pay them either daily or monthly to train our teachers to teach English, Mathematics and Science," he added.
He pointed out that the threeday conference was fully funded by the state government to complement Putrajaya's efforts to enhance the education system.
He said his ministry would make the conference into an annual affair to improve the quality of headmasters' leadership and school management.
According to him, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has endorsed the initiative and funding will not be an issue.
Manyin hoped that headmasters in the state would better their leadership and management skills so as to help elevate Sarawak's performance ranking in public examinations.
"We hope to go up to 11th or 10th next year and remain in top 10 in the future."
He said Sarawak ranked 15th in the overall performance of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) for the last couple of years and 13th in Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) last year.
He said the conference also aimed at enhancing collaboration between schools and the community such as parents.
Citing Helsinki as an example, he said even rural schools in the Finnish capital city were developed while parents there played a pivotal role in helping teachers and students.
He said these Finnish schools could afford specialist teachers but this was not the case in Sarawak, given that the government allocations were granted based on the size of population.
"What matters more is that the parents in Helsinki really help teachers and children in schools."
He thus hoped that parents in the state would also shoulder the obligation of developing schools to heighten government-community collaboration.
Permanent secretary to the ministry Datu Sudarsono Osman was among those present.