‘Choose STEM subjects for better employment prospects’

0

Dr Annuar plants a tree during the event. Yong is at fourth right. — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: Young Sarawakians should choose to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects for better employment prospects when they graduate.

Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee pointed out that most of the 55,000 graduates nationwide who have been unemployed for six months majored in non-STEM courses including human resource management, business administration, and social science.

“This shows that if parents want their children to be employed upon graduation, they should encourage their children to take up STEM subjects. The number of graduates in non-science courses is just way too many,” he said when launching SMK Pending’s ‘Ceriaton’ and a gotong-royong programme on behalf of Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong yesterday.

Dr Annuar said in his own constituency of Nangka, 30 students of a school opted for the science stream at the start of the year but only seven remained by mid-year.

“They told me that they dropped out of the science stream because of poor results and hence did not have the courage to go on,” he said.

Dr Annuar said he now provides free tuition for students in the constituency who willingly choose the science stream.

He also announced Manyin’s pledge of RM10,000 for the school’s parent-teacher association’s activities.

In his speech, SMK Pending principal Yong Ing Thung appealed for government funding to enhance the school’s learning facilities.

“We hope the ministry can help us to put up a roof to the place so that our students do not need to do their activities under the sun or wait in the rain for their parents to pick them up,” he said.

“We need more funds to upgrade facilities at the school such as this school hall. Look at the uneven ground and this hall is well occupied from morning until the evening.”

The school has over 1,400 students, 800 of whom are in the afternoon session.

He added that the school recently won the Kuching Festival School Garden and Landscaping Competition 2017 organised by the Kuching South City Council (MBKS).