‘Teachers must up own competence to mould world-class students’
Teachers need to raise their expectations so the future generation can become the catalysts in bringing Sarawak forward, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
He said with high-quality contributions and innovations from teachers, students in Sarawak will become excellent individuals equal to their worldwide counterparts.
“To attain this ambition, teachers must always be prepared to accept change and raise their own competence to help develop this country further through a robust national education system based on sound knowledge and good cultural values.
“What teachers implement in schools will affect the efforts to produce generations of competitive individuals at the state, national and global levels,” he said.
His text-of-speech was read by Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn at the 2nd International Conference on Education Transformation 2022 here Monday.
Abang Johari said with this in mind, Sarawak plans to provide a bursary for Bumiputera students to further their studies at higher-learning institutions.
He added the bursary will also support students from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds, regardless of ethnicity, to attain higher-level education.
“With the emergence of Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak campus, Curtin University Miri campus, University of Technology Sarawak, i-Cats University College and the upgrading of the Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (Centexs), our people have an abundance of choices to further their studies, pursue their interests and benefit our state in the near future.
“Our commitment towards education is evidenced by all these higher-learning institutions, which is something close to my heart. Sarawakians are very fortunate to have had far-sighted leaders in the past – the success Sarawak enjoys today is a result of our forefathers’ determination.
“With a list of far-sighted initiatives, the state government is already well ahead in our mission to look after the future generation. With the various initiatives to increase Sarawak’s revenue, I hope the state can generate a surplus income to be channeled to the state sovereign wealth fund once it is set up for the future generation’s benefit,” he said, adding the fund will be tabled in the State Legislative Assembly sitting.
Speaking on Sarawak international schools, the Premier said one of the efforts to help Sarawak achieve its aspiration of becoming a developed state was by preparing students to have good English proficiency for higher acceptance in international communities.
“If we have a bright student in Sarawak, he or she may be sent overseas to countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand or other English-speaking countries for their postgraduate studies.
“For this, they must achieve a certain score in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam to be accepted into those universities overseas.
“This is why a high proficiency in English is important and also the reason why the state government decided we must have Dual-Language Programme (DLP) for our schools to produce students who are not ‘jaguh kampung’ (hometown champions) but ‘jaguh dunia’ (world champions),” he said.
Also present was Rajang Teachers Training Institute director Dr Abang Ismail Abang Julhi.