Khair fields questions from the press at the function. — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: The Ministry of Education is awaiting the final result from the ‘lab’ set up by Sarawak to look into measures to address the issue of schools with low enrolment of students (SKM).
Education director-general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof said a recent meeting resolved that Putrajaya would wait for the final report from Sarawak prior to any implementation.
“I think from that meeting, they want to follow Sarawak because Sarawak government has set up a lab to look into how they can help SKM.
“We want to see how it goes in Sarawak, whether they will merge (SKM). There may be other programmes rather than to just merge. They also engage relevant parties to discuss issues. Sarawak will keep us informed,” he told journalists after launching the ministry’s ‘Explore Education’ programme at Plaza Merdeka here yesterday.
On dilapidated schools, Khair said the ministry had not arrived at any decision on what to do with these schools.
He was quick to add that the Sarawak lab would also deliberate mechanism to help dilapidated schools.
To a question on religious schools and tahfiz schools, he said: “I have to refer back because they have several committee meetings and I think the chairman is deputy education minister.”
Earlier, Khair said the ministry picked Sept 16 for the launch of the programme because of the celebration of Malaysia Day.
“This is the ninth programme held this year. We intentionally chose Sept 16 because it was the day when Sarawak together with the Malaya Federation and Sabah came together to form Malaysia,” he added.
He said the programme aimed at demonstrating to students how they could master new life skills like robotics.
“Through this programme, we want to show how the ministry can help our children boost their confidence in various fields including improving their proficiency in the English language,” he said.