Parents, teachers told to prepare children for Industry 4.0

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Automation is among the buzzwords of Industry 4.0. Reuters file photo for illustration purpose.

 

KUCHING: Parents and teachers in Sarawak are told to prepare their children and students to serve the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0, a term that comprises growing trends in automation, the Internet of things, big data, and cloud computing technologies.

Just like steam power, electricity, and digital automation of the past, cyber-physical systems will create the factory of the future – the smart factory.

Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin said everybody in the world including in Sarawak is now talking about 4.0, which means they are going to leapfrog from 2.0 without having to go through 3.0.

“So what does that imply? What does it mean to us as employees, as citizens? Is it going to be good or is it going to be bad?

“There are two schools of thoughts on 4.0: The optimists say yes, we will increase our productivity, improve our life, improve everything, but the pessimists say there will be a lot of unemployment because robots will be taking over from us.

“In view of all these thoughts, I think we need to get ourselves prepared because if we are not prepared there will be millions of us to be thrown out of jobs,” he said at Lodge Group of Schools graduation ceremony for the Class of 2017 at the school hall here today.

Manyin said many universities throughout the world had already prepared their students for the 4.0 industrial revolution.

He cited Germany as an example, where many of its universities were already in 4.0.

“I went to Germany for a study tour recently and I visited three universities there and there are already in 4.0.

“I was also told that there were no unskilled workers in Germany, while we in Malaysia have only about 20 percent skilled workers. So what are we going to do?” he said.

Manyin noted that according to a professor in one of the universities in Germany that he visited, it was probably possible for any country or state to leapfrog from 2.0 to 4.0 if the populations are prepared to learn, prepare to accelerate their training and if they have the resources.

However, if the people are not prepared to learn and do not have the resources, they might falter because it is too far to jump from 2.0 to 4.0.

“These are the things we all have to think about. How are we going to get ourselves prepared to meet the challenges of 4.0? So it’s up to everyone to ponder,” he said.

Manyin said he, as the Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research, was very worried because up to today the performance or achievements of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme in Sarawak up is only about 20 percent.

He said that was why the number of Sarawak students coming to science classes in Form 4 was probably 20 percent the most.

When it comes to Form 6, he lamented that it might be 10 to 15 percent and when it comes to university, it might be less than that.

“If that is the case then how are we going to compete? How are we going to meet the challenges in the 4.0? So it will be very difficult for us.

“This is something that all of us have to think of and get ourselves, our children and students prepared,” he said.