Restructure school system the Sarawak way

KUCHING: Education must be streamlined and properly structured internally to advance the level of education both at national and state level.

In stating this, former director of the Aminuddin Baki Institute, Sarawak branch Assoc Prof Dr Shahri Abdul Rahman stressed that there are many capable education experts in Sarawak that are able to spur education forward at the state level.

“The state government needs to restructure the school systems according to the Sarawakian flavours,” he said.

Shahri pointed out that schools in urban areas have too many students in much smaller spaces which provide a challenge for the teachers.

“The schools in the cities have a problem, for example a school in Sarawak, has 4,000 students, and that school used to be a really good school, but now it is too big, with only 200 teachers.

“This would affect the management of the schools and the management of the students as well,” he told New Sarawak Tribune on Thursday.

He added that the state government has to look at the accessibility and whether different systems could change according to the change of times to improve the education standard.

“Why can’t English teachers be four? – For example, in Hong Kong, to teach English, different teachers teach English but they teach different skill sets.

“The English classes last for three hours, their ninth grade class has story-telling and then writing. Different teachers teach listening, reading, writing and essay-writing,” he said.

Explaining further, Shahri said if the state government is willing, for those who are not able to read perhaps a different method could be used to assist the students.

In addition, he also said education should be implemented formally and informally, and don’t just limit it to the classrooms.

“In Finland, teachers tell their students to come to school three times a week, however, when at home it is not a holiday for the students, teachers would provide tasks and students would need to hand them over the following day,” he said.

Shahri cited Japan as an example, where students as young as five to six years old are taught to water plants, clean and then solve jigsaw puzzles.

“When students eat in school, they are divided in groups and are delegated according to given tasks, isn’t this education?” he said.

Furthermore, Shahri highlighted further that connectivity in Sarawak has to improve because currently China is at 5G, and South Korea is already talking about 6G.

“When we entered the world of digitalisation during COVID-19, it was a laughing stock, just imagine how many percentage had internet connectivity.

“The problem in Sarawak is the streamlined management in education, every time we change the minister of education, the policies also change.

“Whoever is in charge, has to be someone with a real foundation in the education industry,” he opined.