KUCHING: Rural teachers need to keep abreast with learning English to enable them to pass down the basic language skills to their students. Sarawak State Assemblyman and Deputy Speaker of Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN), Dato Gerawat Gala said that during his 18-month tour of the Mulu Constituency, he found it disturbing to note there was a very low level of understanding English not only among the students but also among the teachers.
Gerawat said this after receiving books donated by Kuching RJ Realty at his office at the DUN Building yesterday. The books he received on Sarawak’s culture and history were written in English while the Bahasa Malaysia-to-English dictionaries would be useful for the students, he added. Gerawat said: “Engl i sh i s very important, especially for the younger generat ion and the rural schools are handi – capped because they do not have enough qualified English language teachers.
“I was told that a batch of teachers were asked to sit for a simple English language test for Secondary Three students and half of them failed.” He rei terated that most of the s tudent s could read the English alphabet, but they did not understand much of what they read and therefore, could not understand the essence of the subject.
Chief Executive Officer of RJ Realty, Lily Lim said she hoped that the books and dictionaries could be distributed to major schools or government agencies in the Baram to encourage the community to read English.
An advocate of Corporat e Social Responsibility (CSR), Lily said that while the books were for the community in the Baram, she would also donate books to other rural communities in other parts of Sarawak. She said: “These books are for the school libraries but I hope that the teachers will take time to read the books so that they will be well-versed with the history and cultures of the communities they are working with. “Not all the rural teachers under s tand the hi s tor y and cul tures of the communi t ies where they are stationed. So the y mus t take i t on themselves to learn.
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