KOTA KINABALU – The government should not rest on its laurels now that the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) passing grades of Sabah’s rural students are catching up with their urban counterparts.
Sabah PKR head Datuk Christina Liew said as an example, schools in rural Sabah lack the right teachers to handle certain subjects.
“The Education Ministry must rectify this shortage by appointing new teachers preferably Sabahans.
“While we take pride in the SPM 2020 results achieved by Sabah students, the improvement in performance may not reflect the real problems faced by teachers, parents and students, particularly in the rural areas.
“If we analyse the data, we can see that the state average grade of 5.34 is below the national average grade of 4.80 recorded for SPM 2020.
“However, there is ample room for improvement and we are optimistic that Sabah will fare better in the SPM 2021 examination with enhanced learning facilities and greater incentives for students,” said Liew.
Liew said this during the “People’s Forum: Impact of Teaching and Learning at Home (PdPR)”, an online forum organised by Sabah PKR education committee.
Liew stressed on the need to meet the different educational needs of the younger generation living today in the digital era and look at its impact since schools will remain closed for long periods.
Liew, who is also Tawau MP cum Api Api asemblyman, reminded the federal government to upgrade or rebuild the dilapidated schools in Sabah so they can be environments that are more conducive to teaching and learning.
In 2020, a total of 589 out of 1,296 schools in Sabah have been categorised as dilapidated, of which 91 were classified as dilapidated Scale 7 schools – unsafe for occupation. – The Vibes, June 12, 2021
