KUCHING: Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn says that Sarawak has been demanding authority in certain education matters as stated in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, which led to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Sagah, who is Sarawak Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development, pointed out that while some matters were included in the Malaysian Constitution, they have yet to be implemented, prompting Sarawakians to voice their demands loudly.
“We sometimes feel that our counterparts in Putrajaya have misplaced some of their priorities towards Sarawak, hence the poor conditions of our rural schools, unfilled teaching positions, a one-size-fits-all policy, especially funding of school programmes and activities, and centralised decision making, to name a few.
“If you read the papers, statements are made both by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister that the federal government is willing to offer concession to decentralise and devolve certain authority to Sarawak.
“We welcome this stand and we will be making our case heard very soon. We hope that the federal government, especially the Ministry of Education, is not playing lip service only as Sarawak wants to be fully involved in making decision in the shaping of the future generation,” he said at the National Education and Learning Summit in Kuala Lumpur on today (July 13).
During his address, Sagah also discussed Sarawak’s focus on renewable energy and ongoing research in various fields.
He mentioned initiatives in hydrogen production, storage, and distribution, sustainable aviation fuel development using microalgae, and biomass research conducted by local and international partners in collaboration with agencies like the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, Tropical Peat Research Institute, and the forthcoming Sarawak Infectious Disease Centre.
Sagah underscored the importance of equipping Sarawak’s human capital with the necessary knowledge and skills to support these efforts.
“We need to achieve critical mass number of engineers, specialists, technologists, scientists, in all fields. We also need a large number of professionals in the non-technical fields, especially the C-suites and others.
“We have done studies and we have master plans and blueprints on how to achieve the numbers but as it is, we are facing the great challenge of enrolling enough students into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).”
He outlined the ministry’s goal of having 40 per cent (currently at 32) of students in STEM and 20 per cent (currently at 12) in TVET by 2030, requiring a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including the federal-owned Department of Education Sarawak under the Ministry of Education Malaysia.
