SIBU, Oct 5 (Bernama) — Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state needs to explore the new economy in order to match the current skills and education of its people.
He said apart from ensuring that Sarawak’s young people who possess expertise do not migrate to other places in search of employment, this step is expected to generate income in tandem with efforts to make Sarawak a high-income state by 2030.
“Due to this, we are giving training through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, based on science that is related to our resources. God willing, Sarawak will become a high-income state for our children.
“I feel this is our dream, together. When we have achieved this, we will be global players. We are not jaguh kampung (village heroes) but jaguh dunia (world champions),” he said.
Abang Johari said this when speaking during the official launch of the 57th Sarawak Secondary Schools Education Management Conference here today.
He said Sarawak’s policy in education is not just so that it will become strong but to adapt its education to the needs of the world economic development.
According to him, the granting of funds to DLP (dual language programme) by the Sarawak government through the Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development is because it wants the people to be fluent in Bahasa Malaysia, which is the national language, as well as to recognise the mastery of English as a world language that can help in the development of technology in the state.
He also said Yayasan Sarawak’s takeover of five private universities was to give opportunities to Sarawakian children who failed to secure places in Malaysian public universities through the central University Admission Unit (UPU).
“That’s why we have our own university and we are not connected to UPU. We can send our children to major in whatever they want. This can give opportunities to our children,” he added.
The five universities under the takeover are Swinburne University in Kuching, Curtin University Malaysia in Miri, University of Technology Sarawak (UTS) in Sibu as well as Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS) and i-CATS University College.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency