By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Sept 21: Malaysia’s declining performance in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 assessment should force a serious rethink of how education is managed — including giving Sarawak greater control over its own education priorities, says Kota Sentosa assemblyman Wilfred Yap.
He said Malaysian students scored below the OECD average in mathematics, reading and science, with performance in all three areas declining from 2018. Mathematics also recorded a further drop between 2022 and 2025.
“These are not merely numbers on an international ranking table. They concern the basic knowledge, skills and future opportunities of our children,” Yap said in a statement today.
He questioned whether the country was getting the educational outcomes expected from the resources invested, pointing out that the Education Ministry received a record RM64.1 billion under Budget 2025.
“Funding alone does not automatically translate into better educational outcomes.
“But when such a substantial allocation is made, the government must answer a legitimate question — are we getting the educational outcomes that our children deserve?” he said.
For Sarawak, Yap said the results also strengthened the case for greater authority over education, given the State’s vast geography, rural and interior communities, and multicultural and multilingual environment.
“Decisions affecting our children should not always be designed from Putrajaya and applied uniformly across the country,” he said.
He said Sarawak should have greater flexibility to set education priorities, address rural school needs, strengthen STEM and technical and vocational education, improve support in underserved areas and develop programmes suited to its multicultural and multilingual population.
Yap stressed that greater autonomy would not mean abandoning national standards, but allowing Sarawak to decide how best to deliver education according to its own needs.
“This is not about political point-scoring. It is about whether our children are receiving the quality of education necessary to compete, succeed and contribute in a rapidly changing world,” he said.
Yap said the PISA results should trigger accountability, meaningful reform and greater decentralisation of education decision-making.
“Our children cannot wait. Their future cannot be left to business as usual,” he said. — DayakDaily
