Hornbill Unleashed
May 29, 2015
Billions promised, but Sarawak schools still in sorry state
Entry into the teaching degree programme (PISMP) has been stringent as candidates must obtain five outstanding results in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) to be eligible to take the teacher qualification test (UKCG), and seven to join Program Pelajar Cemerlang (PPC).
But Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin thinks this is not enough. He said there is a need to use the psychometric test when recruiting new teachers.
This, according to him, will ensure PISMP and PPC candidates will graduate with a high knowledge discipline involving the physical and spiritual aspects.
“I wish to urge the Education Service Commission (SPP) to have a personality assessment through the psychometric test for all teaching graduates as an initial screening in their appointment process,” he told participants of the 2015 Education Service Conference in Miri, middle of May.
The Education Minister seems to think Malaysia’s education is what it is today because our teachers didn’t undergo the psychometric test.
Or that the standard of our education could have been better if theteacher recruitment process had included the psychometric test.
Didn’t someone tell him many schools in Sarawak, especially the rural ones, are in a sorry state?
Or that we have been talking in different wavelengths, and the Education Minister has missed the whole point?
Whichever the case, psychometric test is the least of Sarawak’s problems. Its problem is teacher shortage.
Beginning of the year, the Education Ministry said it would relax conditions to recruit trainee teachers from Sarawak so that more Sarawakians can serve in their home state.
In fact, it was Muhyiddin himself who talked about increasing the number of trainees from the state at teachers training institutes (IPGs).
“If the current number of Sarawakian teachers posted to the state is only 10 to 15 per cent of the total number of educators, the ministry would increase this percentage in stages,” the Education Minister was quoted as saying.
If, however, psychometric test is introduced, it only adds to the difficulty of meeting the need for more teachers.
Of course, our major drawbacks are overcrowded schools, rotting school buildings, computers and equipment that don’t work because there is no electricity (the generators broke down) and no Internet service.
Earlier in the year, Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president Jisin Nyud was hoping that 2015 would have the answers to critical issues faced by Sarawak’s schools – the slow progress in repairing dilapidated and old school buildings, and upgrading facilities like the Internet.
“By the end of 2013, critical repairs and upgrading should have been completed across 1,608 schools. However, towards the end of 2014 how many schools in Sarawak have been repaired or upgraded?” Jisin had asked.
We are halfway through 2015, but similar problems still persist, which is why we get to hear of the malfunctioning power generators of SMK
Katibas, which pushed students to extreme inconvenience – having to grope in total darkness at sundown and put up with hot and stuffy classrooms during the day.
That’s not all. Without electricity, the pumps cannot draw water from the Katibas River to the boarding school. The toilets cannot be flushed and there is no water for bathing and cooking.
To Sarawak PKR vice-chairman See Chee How, the case of SMK Katibas is one of neglect on the part of the federal government for schools in Sarawak:
“Last year, in the Sarawak State Assembly, we were informed that the state Education Department had made 230 applications for infrastructural upgrading, improvement works and facilities for schools under the first, second and third rolling plans (2011-2014) costing RM4.59 billion. But only five projects were approved.
“We were also told the federal government had approved RM449.773 million for 751 schools needing repair, renovation or reconstruction.
“The deputy prime minister had, on revealing the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025, said all schools in Sarawak and Sabah are given priority for infrastructural upgrading and improvement work and be fully equipped with facilities before the end of 2014.”
It’s most regrettable if SMK Katibas is not among the 751 schools to be repaired, renovated or reconstructed. How many more are not in that list?
Or rather, have they really started the repair, renovation or reconstruction?
And what about the SMK Serian II that was approved under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP)?
Land acquisition and compensation had been commissioned, yet the project hasn’t commenced.
And while the federal government sits on the project, the current SMK Serian, built in 1964, is crowding together about 2,500 students into several old and dilapidated buildings.
Have we got the wavelength right, now? For how long are we going to talk about the same old thing, and nothing done? — JIMMY ADIT
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