Mahdzir, Adenan to meet on Sarawak education issues

Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid will meet Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem tomorrow on a number of issues affecting education in the state. He said among the issues were on the position of English in the national education system, the conditions of rural schools in the state and on the placement of more local teachers to teach in schools in Sarawak. Mahdzir told the media this after officiating at the National Education Convention for Sarawak at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) today. Some 2,500 headmasters, principals and education officers from throughout the state are attending the function with the objective to further upgrade the local quality of education. He agreed with Adenan's suggestion that the English language needed to be given far greater priority in the country's education system although the Bahasa Kebangsaan would remain the main medium. "We believe Adenan is prompted to make the suggestion because of his deep understanding of the situation where Sarawak has many different ethnic groups besides the importance of English as a widely spoken world language in a lot of fields," he said. On the placement of more local teachers in the state, Mahdzir said some efforts had been made. "We have recently interviewed and engaged 181 new teachers. We are still trying to recruit more from the open market for those with the necessary qualification and from current intake in the teacher training institutes," he said. Early this month Adenan had also said he was keen to meet Mahdzir. On the current flood situation in the state, he said nine schools here were affected and closed while three were being used as evacuation centres. "We will leave it to the headmasters and district education officers concerned to see if schools in their areas affected by the flood needed to be closed for the students' safety. "They are on the ground and they know the situation best," he said. – Bernama, February 21, 2016.]]>