FESTIVE DO: Ghani beating the gong to start the STU Gawai Dayak open house.
KUCHING: The government should build success stories to inspire parents in remote areas to send their children to school.
Suggesting this yesterday, Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president William Ghani Bina said not all rural parents understand the importance of education and, therefore, the authorities must play a motivating role.
“Our national leaders keep saying that we must send our children to school, and people in town have no problem understanding this.
“More often than not, parents in rural areas such as the Penans do not get it. The government should pick some qualified children and train them to be successful.
“When these children become successful and return to their hometown, the rural community will be convinced because seeing is believing,” he said at the union’s Gawai Dayak open house at Wisma STU at Jalan Song here. Ghani asserted that education must be made part of the community.
He said SK Ba Kelalan emerged as one of the best schools thanks to the contribution of parents and the locals there.
“Parents of the entire kampung in Ba Kelalan gather, making children feel at home at the school.”
He also pointed out that if a school was located in an Iban-majority area, it ought to be headed by an Iban instead of other races.
“If it is an Iban area, appoint an Iban to be the headmaster; if it is a Chinese area, get a Chinese to be the principal.”
In Malaysia, Ghani said there were 430,000 teachers attending to 5.3 million students in over 7,000 primary schools and more than 2,000 secondary schools.
“Our job looks simple but it is not. STU is a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-regional organisation. We have members from Sabah and even Penang.”
STU is a body looking after the welfare and benefits of over 60 per cent of teachers in the state.
It has 23,000 members while there are 38,000 teachers serving in the state. Each member pays RM5 every month.