Manyin to meet reps on low enrolment schools

KUCHING: Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong will be meeting all state elected representatives to gather ideas on merging schools with low enrolment of students.

The Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research said he would be meeting these key leaders early next month to get their views before deciding on schools that should be merged.

“We need to identify smaller schools (with low enrolment) to be merged. In order to do this, I need to meet all the elected representatives early next month,” he said when met by reporters after the launch of Tegas Digital Innovation Hub at iCOM Square in Pending here yesterday.

He said the government had allocated RM1 billion to build new schools “that are to be sizable” in Sarawak.

Once he is done with the meeting, Manyin said his ministry would then emphasise on the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in schools.

According to him, various experts have provided the ministry with proposals and recommendations on this matter.

He said these experts are from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, Curtin University, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) as well as other relevant authorities.

“They provided input and proposals. We will look at those proposals and see what we are going to do,” added Manyin.