English proficiency is a must, says Education, Science and Technology Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong.
“As the standard of English has declined over the years in Sarawak, there is an urgent need to improve this among our teachers and students.
“Practical approaches are pertinent to ensure effective implementation by all parties involved and efforts that have been initiated or planned by the ministry towards increasing English proficiency in the past years include Sarawak English Language Education Symposium (SELES),” he said at the State Legislative Assembly yesterday.
“In 2017, our theme for SELES was “Connecting the Dots: Curriculum, Classroom and Community” while for 2018, our focus shifted to “Creativity: From Inspiration to Implementation” whereby the two symposia involved over 2,000 teachers and practitioners.
“Based on the feedback received by our ministry, the teachers find the symposia beneficial to update their knowledge on international best practices and the recent symposium also gave our own teachers the platform to showcase their innovation in teaching English,” he stated.
The participants were also tasked to share what they had learned to their colleagues in their respective schools and he hoped that the teachers would adopt and adapt these in their own classrooms.
The theme of SELES 2019, which will be held in September, is ‘Back to The Future’ in which the emphasis will be on 21st century teaching and learning.
“In September 2018, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Research (MESTR) organised the English and STEM Baram Outreach Programme that involved 1,546 students from eight schools, teaching them to understand the actual situation with respect to the teaching of English and STEM in our schools. MESTR is planning to undertake a ‘Baseline Research for English and STEM’,” he said.
Manyin further explained that on April 24, during his meeting with the Chief Minister, the Federal Minister for Education offered Sarawak to be the first state to fully implement the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English.
“The offer was accepted by the Chief Minister and the onus is now on the Sarawak Education Department (JPNS) and Sarawak government to execute this successfully.
“There are many challenges that need to be resolved first before we can implement this initiative. This includes the training of teachers, the production of resource materials, and the decision on the assessment and examination format that will be used.
“These are not easy tasks as they require the acceptance of the parents, the readiness of the teachers, and the support of all parties concerned, especially the Ministry of Education,” he said.
MESTR has started engagement with the Sarawak Education Department to obtain the number of teachers that needed to be trained, the module for training, and the resources needed and they will also be engaging with all the relevant institutions of higher learning (Unimas, UiTM, Curtin, Swinburne, and IPGs) to discuss the training of the teachers.
Manyin further mentioned that although they planned to start the implementation in 2020, it would be carried out in stages, beginning with 30 per cent of schools for the first year.
“With that, we request the support of all honourable members from both sides of this august house to convince their constituents to support this important initiative that will have significant impact on the proficiency in English. To carry out all these will require a substantial amount of funding in which we will work together with the Ministry of Education to get the funds.”
