S’wak minister: Dip in M’sia’s Pisa performance a cause for concern, calls for state-federal cooperation

KUCHING (Dec 7): The drop in Malaysia’s performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) is a cause for concern, said Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn.

Thus, the Sarawak Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister added, all stakeholders in the education industry at state and federal level must work hand in hand to address the matter.

“We in Sarawak are ever willing to complement the efforts by our federal counterparts as we have shown all these years.

“We have pumped in billions of ringgit in infrastructure, programmes and activities for education advancement in the state. We even have a dedicated ministry for education.

“All these efforts and resources would go to waste if concrete and concerted efforts are not put in to address this decline in performance,” he said in a statement.

He pointed out that the state’s emphasis on the Sarawak Dual Language Programme which involves the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English is one of the initiatives the state has put in and that all parties must work hand in glove to ensure its success.

“Our initiative to introduce common assessment at Primary 6 is also our effort to gauge performance so as to enable interventions where deemed necessary,” he said.

Sagah urged the federal Ministry of Education to be open with Sarawak’s input, recommendations and participation in education programmes as both the federal and state governments have the same objectives.

“The Ministry of Education must endeavour to improve our students’ performance by thinking outside the box, giving highest priority to teaching English, Science and Mathematics by allowing more contact time and reducing other subjects,” he said.

He gave his assurance that the Sarawak government will continue to collaborate, complement and provide the necessary resources to improve the quality of education in the state.

He also called on parents to be involved in their children’s education.

Malaysia’s performance in Pisa 2022 had dropped in all three forms of literacy assessed; namely reading, mathematics and science.

Under reading, the country scored 388 points while in mathematics and science, the score was 409 and 416 respectively. In 2018, students had scored 415 points for reading, 440 for mathematics and 438 for science.

Pisa is an international study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held once every three years to evaluate systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in participating countries.

Since 2000, more than 70 countries have participated in Pisa.