Standard of education must be improved – minister
SERIAN: Sarawak does not want to suffer from the 'curse of natural resources', whereby the state's economic growth is less than others despite having more natural resources.
Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong said to prevent this, the standard of education and the state's academic performance must be improved even if it means the state has to come up with its own initiatives.
He cited Singapore and South Korea as among countries where very good education standards had contributed to their rise as amongst the world's biggest economies despite having fewer or no natural resources compared to others.
"Some say that to destroy a country, all you need to do is to bring down its education system. This shows that education is a powerful weapon.
"We do not want Sarawak to suffer from the 'curse of natural resources', but we want our economy to grow from our natural resources such as our oil and gas, and the palm oil and other commercial crops we plant on our many lands. To do this, we need to improve our education standard," he said when closing the Serian Division SPM in Camp 2018 at Tayung Langui Hall in Kampung Pichin near here on Sunday.
Manyin, who is also Tebedu assemblyman, was referring to the resource curse, also known as paradox of plenty, which refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.
He also said that ever since the ministry was formed in May last year, it chose to do benchmarking not with counterparts in the Peninsula, but with successful countries with the best education system such as Finland and Singapore.
This is in order to learn how these countries develop very good education systems which contributed to their success, he added.
As an example, he pointed out in Singapore there is the Teach Less, Learn More concept which he hoped Teachers Training Institute (IPG) Batu Lintang campus can pick up and incorporate in reallife learning environment.
"I hope there is a stop to politicking in our education system. The system keeps on changing due to this politicking, and this causes the people and economy to suffer. It is time now that we go for results, and build the country by improving our education system. I think everybody will agree with me on this," he said.
Meanwhile, a total 265 Form Five students from three secondary schools took part in the three-day camp organised by IPG Batu Lintang as an outreach programme to assist these schools to improve performance in this year's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exam.
The three participating schools are SMK Tebedu, SMK Tebakang and SMK Taee. SMK Tebedu principal Jimali Sunang hoped this camp will contribute to better SPM performance and better schools grade point average (GPA).
The SPM in Camp was one of the components of the education transformation programme carried out in Serian through IPG Batu Lintang, which has been organising it for the past three years through funds from Manyin.
Manyin in his speech also announced RM100,000 for IPG Batu Lintang to organise similar programme next year. Manyin also mentioned that financial allocations are also given out to the schools to improve their respective facilities.
Also present at the ceremony were Serian district officer Lim Hock Meng, Tebedu district officer Raymond Achen and IPG Batu Lintang director Jamiran Salam.