Don’t compare Sabah education with other states – Masidi

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Masidi presenting an award to one of the teachers during the dinner.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s performance in the education sector should not be compared with states in Peninsular Malaysia, said Datuk Masidi Manjun, who is the minister in charge of education in the state.

“It is even unfair for Sabah’s performance to be compared with a state like Terengganu, as not only Terengganu is a much smaller state than Sabah, the teachers there also have better facilities and do not have to take boats and walk half a day just to reach a school to teach,” said Masidi, who is also the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, during the Educators Solidarity and Appreciation Dinner held in conjunction with the State-level Teachers’ Day Celebration at 1Borneo on Wednesday night.

He said he believes that if Sabah are provided with adequate facilities, it could do even better than many of the schools in the peninsula. .

“I have faith in our teachers,” he said, when addressing the 1,000 teachers attending the event.

He also said the comparison did not take into account many important facets such as Sabah’s vastness in land area, its hilly slopes, its rural areas and so on.

“Don’t be so fast to open your mouth and make comparison. It is not fair,” he pointed out.

Masidi also responded to ideas urging for better and bigger roads to be constructed on the Crocker Range so that areas that were now secluded could be reached easily.

“It is not so easy to develop the area. The bigger roads you construct there, the more prone the area is to landslides,” he said.

He also said the Kinabatangan area alone was larger than the entire state of Pahang.

“They (Pahang) have many people looking after it, but Kinabatangan only has Bung (Datuk Bung Mokhtar) looking after the entire area,” he joked.

Later, in an interview, Masidi called on educators in Sabah to be united in raising the level of education in the state.

He also commended the educators in Sabah for although they were dispersed throughout the State, they were united in one aspect and that was in the development of the State’s education sector.

He commended a retired teacher, Dr Dayu Sansalu for producing a book on Sabah’s 100 years in Education (from 1881 – 1981), as well as Androd Sadian, a teacher from SMK Tandek, who may be the first in the world to produce the Educational Technical Pen A, which works as a simple alternative to Fleming’s left and right hand rules.

Androd, when interviewed, said that the pen has been patented and was being sold at an affordable price of RM7.50. It functions as a ball pen as well as a Fleming’s device.

The pen will be launched in Sabah first, before it is marketed to overseas and world market.

“It benefits Physics students who are studying electromagnetic,” he said.

Meanwhile, several awards were also presented during the dinner event.

For the Secondary school category in the Innovative Teachers Awards, the prizes were presented to Lee Ken Voon (SM St. Patrick Tawau – winner), Zaihan Hairuzialani Mohd Jusoh (SMK Agama Tun Ahmadshah, Inanam – first runner up), and Hanita Ladjaharun (SMK Bandaraya – second runner up); In the Primary School category, the prizes went to Mailin Bahari (SK Timbang Batu – winner), Nor Aswamati Ismail (SK Bukit Padang – second prize winner) and Cynthia Cindy James (SK Kunak 2 – third prize winner).

For the pre-school category, the prizes went to Sharin Shamsuri (SK Bukit Padang), Sazanah Saiwah (SK Malubang) and Nor Aziah Salleh (SK Kawang Papar).

Two special education excellent teacher awards were also presented to Nani Agang and Wong Swee Foon, both of SMK Badin Tuaran, respectively.