PSB Serembu chief highlights unresolved education problems in Sarawak
KUCHING: The Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government and the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government must stop paying lip-service to the education sector in the state as none of the three major problems in education have been satisfactorily solved, said Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Serembu chairperson Iana Akam.
In a statement yesterday, she listed the problems as dilapidated schools, poor internet connectivity and online teaching, and shortage of teachers in Sarawak.
“They must put an end to the games they are playing to create the impressions that they are actually working to solve the problems that have bedevilled the education sector in Sarawak for so long.
“During the period when the Pakatan Harapan (PH) was the federal government it was the blame game that was played. The GPS government of Sarawak and the PH government took turns to blame each other on the issue of the dilapidated schools,” she said.
Iana claimed that Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong was ‘pulling wool over the people’s eyes’ when he said in August 2020 that the Sarawak government was considering recruiting unemployed graduates from Sarawak to meet the needs of the education sector in Sarawak.
“Many Sarawakians are aware that education is on the federal list in the Federal Constitution and for English to be made a language of instruction in Sarawak will require an amendment to the Federal Constitution. So too the proposal for the Sarawak government to recruit teachers for schools in Sarawak.
“So far, we have not heard of a move by the GPS government to propose a bill in Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution in order to facilitate those two proposals,” she said.
On the shortage of teachers, Iana pointed out that in June this year, Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Jidin had said that the Education Services Commission would launch a one-off recruitment of graduate teachers in order to address the shortage throughout Malaysia.
“It was said that nationwide there was a shortage of 18,702 teachers. In Sarawak alone, there was a shortage of 3,385 teachers – 1,545 in secondary schools and 1,840 in primary schools.
“On July 8, the Education Services Commission put out an advertisement, inviting interested graduates to apply to become teachers.
“That was during the period when PN was the federal government and Radzi was the education minister. We are now in the period of the ‘PN Version 2’ government and Radzi is still the education minister but now there is only deathly quiet on this matter,” she said.
Iana added that it is not lost on Sarawakians that a large Malaya-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) voiced strong objections to the proposed one-off recruitment and that the number of unemployed graduates in Malaya far outstripped the unemployed graduates in Sarawak.
“Sarawakians are now asking exactly how many graduates from Sarawak applied to become teachers under that initiative and what exactly is the status of that initiative today,” she said.
As for dilapidated schools, Iana said that Sarawakians want both Manyin and Radzi to disclose how many exactly of the 1,020 dilapidated schools reported in Sarawak have been restored into safe and hazard-free schools.
She said Sarawakians are also no longer interested in how many telecommunication towers have been constructed and how many are currently under construction.
“Sarawakians want to know when can reliable Internet connectivity be made available to all schools, particularly schools in the rural areas.
“The new academic year for primary schools will commence in March 2022, about five months from now. Increasingly it looks like many Sarawak students will be returning to schools that do not have enough teachers, still in dilapidated and unsafe conditions and without reliable Internet connectivity,” she lamented.
She said the principal stakeholders in Sarawak’s education sector, parents and students, are becoming increasingly angry about the lackadaisical attitude adopted by both the PN federal government and the GPS state government.
“The future of the students and by extension, the future of Sarawak, is put at stake by this.
“The message from the principal stakeholders is this: Get your act together now,” she said.