Sabah students weak in Maths, English
Mathema cs and English are among the subjects that the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) students in Sabah are weak in, said Educa on Director-General Datuk Dr Amin Senin.
KOTA KINABALU: Mathematics and English are among the subjects that the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) students in Sabah are weak in, said Education Director-General Datuk Dr Amin Senin.
“As a whole, our focus for UPSR is on the minimum competency of the students. For Sabah, the straight ‘E' rate (where the students fail to reach the minimum competency level) in Sabah has decreased. This is a good indicator. This proves that our strategy worked.
“However, if we zoom into certain subjects, it can be seen that subjects such as Mathematics and English require more attention. These are the two subjects that we need to look into,” Amin told reporters when met at his Executive Talk Programme with the State Education Department yesterday.
In his talk, he highlighted the issues relating to UPSR in Sabah as well some of the other prominent problems faced by primary and secondary schools in the state.
Amin said that the Education Department had to address the education problems in the state by approaching the matter, district by district.
He explained that certain districts are still lacking in its competency level among its students.
“I urge the headmasters and the PPDs to focus on subjects that did not reach the minimum competency level and to focus on the underperforming districts,” he said.
Amin stressed that he wants all the schools in the various districts of Sabah to grow together, without leaving any district behind.
Commenting on Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik's proposal to introduce swimming as a co-curricular activity in school, Amin said that it is up to the PPDs and schools to decide whether they want to adopt the idea.
He said that some schools in the country had already worked with local swimming clubs, even before the proposal was made.
However, he said that the proposal is not mandatory; if the school can pull it off then by all means they should.
“The main point here is to spread awareness on the importance of swimming,” said Amin.
On the termination of the Linus (Literacy and Numeracy Screening) intiative, Amin said that he wants schools to identify its own programmes and solutions, instead of relying on the initiatives set up by the Education Ministry.
Among those present in the event were State Education Department deputy director Datuk Dr Kassim Ibrahim as well as teachers, headmasters, principals, PPDs and the education department heads.