By Ashley Sim
KUCHING, Sept 15: The Sarawak government will continue providing bilingual training for teachers during school holidays, while also developing common science laboratories in every district, to strengthen education standards, Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg announced.
He said the bilingual training is vital to support Sarawak’s dual language policy, and to ensure students remain competitive under international standards, with assessments benchmarked against the Cambridge syllabus.
“We will continue to give you bilingual training during the school holidays. This is important because we have assessments for Primary 6, Form 3, and Form 5, based on Cambridge standards,” he said when delivering his speech at the gala dinner in conjunction with the Sarawak Teachers’ Union’s (STU) Diamond Jubilee, held last night (Sept 14) at a hotel here.
The event was broadcast live via the Sarawak Public Communication Unit (Ukas) YouTube channel.
Abang Johari stressed that assessments are necessary to gauge students’ performance, as automatic promotions without exams would not reflect their true standard.
“If our children are not assessed, we do not know their standard. That is why we have our own dual assessment. It is not free, the State government bears the cost,” he pointed out.
The Premier also announced that the State government will construct common science labs in districts across Sarawak, so that students from schools without facilities can still access practical training in subjects like chemistry, physics, and biology.
“Some schools do not have laboratories. But to learn subjects like chemistry, physics, and biology, you need labs. That is why we will build common labs in each district, for schools to use,” he explained.
He added that Sarawak’s education policies, which recognise multilingualism and international benchmarks, are designed to prepare students to become global citizens.
“We have our national education framework, but in Sarawak, we also want our children to be global citizens. They must have quality education, and the ability to compete internationally,” he said. — DayakDaily
