KOTA KINABALU: There is an increasing awareness on the importance of education among the Orang Asli community, according to Orang Asli Development Department (JAKOA).
Its director-general Datuk Mohd Sani Mistam said this was evident with the growing number of Orang Asli youths pursuing education at higher learning institutions in and outside the country.
He said the department’s record showed that 254 Orang Asli youths were enrolled in various universities this year, a remarkable figure considering there were only 450 of them making it to tertiary level so far.
He said the figure also far surpassed JAKOA’s KPI for 2012, which was 169 students.
“This is definitely an encouraging trend, Orang Asli parents today are placing more emphasis on their children’s education. They are beginning to understand the need for education in order for the younger generation to change their socio-economic background for the better,” he said.
He was speaking at a reception dinner for 32 Orang Asli students currently studying in Sabah and Sarawak IPTAs (Borneo zone) and a group of 50 Orang Asli mothers under the Ibu-Ibu Penggalak Pembaca programme, on Thursday.
He said 96 Orang Asli graduates had completed their studies in various fields as of October, while 11 others have succeeded in furthering their studies overseas such as Australia, Ireland, Canada, India, Indonesia and Russia for their Bachelor’s degree (8), Masters (2) and PhD (1) levels.
As such, Mohd Sani said he was confident more Orang Asli youths would able to pursue higher education next year and make use of various facilities and assistance provided by the government specifically for them.
He noted that as the agency in charge of developing the orang asli community in Malaysia, JAKOA has been given a huge allocation towards this purpose, including for scholarships, which have been channeled to all 450 students.
“We also have been providing laptops to deserving students of at least 3.00 CGPA since 2009, but starting next year we will provide this assistance to all the new intake who succeeded in gaining entry to IPTA,” he added.
Mohd Sani also reminded the students that they hold a vital role as a catalyst in developing their community which is often associated with poverty, and backward.
The younger generation of Orang Asli, he said, should dare to make a paradigm shift and change their mindset to bring their society at par with the other ethnics in Malaysia.
“I believe the Orang Asli can advance and compete with the others. In fact, some of their students overseas are among the top students in their universities.
“So, today we can say the Orang Asli community is no longer backward but in fact starting to become an asset to the development and progress of our country,” he said.
The meeting was the fourth in a series involving Orang Asli students in IPTAs across the country and overseas
The first one in the Malaysian series was held in Klang Valley Zone during the Ramadhan month, while the last meeting, for students in the East Zone, is expected to be held on Dec 19.