BAU, Oct 27: Bau is the first district in Sarawak to hit the mark of 93 per cent local teachers for its primary and secondary schools.
Bau district education officer Dr Les Met said there are 1,073 teachers in 40 primary and three secondary schools here.
In congratulating the crowd at the “Speak English Every Day” (SEED) programme at SK Jagoi today, Les said the overall achievement is something that the district is very proud of especially being the first in the state to achieve such a feat.
Bau district is on track to achieve the late chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem’s 90:10 ratio (90 per cent Sarawakian teachers to 10 per cent non-Sarawakian teachers in Sarawak).
Earlier, the state education department had come up with several proposals to achieve the ratio.
These include ensuring that teachers posted to fill positions in Sarawak meet the state’s needs in terms of subjects, giving priority to trained Sarawakian teachers to be posted in the state, recruiting more Sarawakians into teacher training programmes and reviving the school-based teacher training programme to train more teachers for primary schools.
Meanwhile, Bau is also the first district to kick start the SEED programme.
Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong said the full programme is expected to be implemented next year as the state government strives to improve the level of English proficiency among students in Sarawak.
The programme aims to encourage students and teachers to communicate in English the moment they enter their school compounds.
“We hope our schools will communicate in English, especially primary schools, because it is much easier for young boys and girls to learn languages. It is a reality that there is a decline in the usage of English and there is a decline in our proficiency in English,” he stressed.
He said his ministry had earlier on, written to all the state assemblymen and assemblywomen (ADUN) to adopt schools in their constituencies under the said programme.
“At the moment, this programme is purely on voluntarily basis as there is no allocation from the state government. We will ask for assistance especially in financial aid to run this programme. Therefore, we cannot force the ADUNS to adopt schools. So far the feedback from ADUNS has been very positive and most of them are willing to adopt the schools in their constituency,” he said.
He added that some wanted to adopt three or four schools and some wanted to adopt all the schools in their constituency.
Tasik Biru assemblyman Datuk Henry Harry Jinep and Serembu assemblyman Miro Simuh have chosen to adopt all the schools in their respective constituency. — DayakDaily
