(From right) President of Conoco Philips Malaysia, David Hendicott, Kamala and Yusof during the press conference, yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: The Education and Innovation Ministry wants more English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) to be placed in Sabah schools to help students master the language.
Disclosing this yesterday, its minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob said the current government was more proactive in the development of education in the state through the empowerment of the English Language.
Speaking at a press conference during the 50th Anniversary of moon landing held at the Sabah State Library here, he said to create innovative people and far-sighted students, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) were important and English was often used globally in this particular area of studies.
Thus, he added to master the English Language was important.
Meanwhile, the United States (US) Ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Lakhdir, said the event yesterday was one of the activities of the embassy’s five-day visit focusing on education, English Language and STEM.
And for that, she explained that the ETAs programme was in collaboration between the US and Malaysia for which 100 ETAs were placed in selected schools around the country, including 14 in Sabah.
She said the ETAs helped the students to use and master the English Language.
However, ETAs are not a teacher replacement as they are using a teaching method under the guidance of a mentor.
ETAs are a 10-month programme placing culture experience of young people from the US to schools here, in Malaysia between January and October and it has been carried out for the past 13 years, but Sabah and Sarawak were only added to the programme a few years ago.
“Our newest partner in the ETAs programme is Conoco Philips Malaysia because this year it has committed itself to support the activities of the ETAs and the schools in Sabah. This is because it is a very important US company in Sabah and it has corporate social responsibility to help the communities and the young people of Sabah,” she said, adding that it was focusing on education, talent development and innovation.
“The future is going to require independent and critical thinkers. Thinkers that use lots of different experience and one of the things that I love about this library is that it recognises that.
“Learning is not going to be very different, very adaptive and flexible. It is not. It is going to be about books but much more. So this is about thinking about the next 50 years. So I think this library represents that incredible recognition and also the ministry’s recognition.
“The future is going require these young people to be very different and to be innovators, change agents and to be leaders for Sabah and beyond. So that is what we are doing here for us, for the people. And that is the foundation of the US Malaysia relationship and the US Sabah relationship,” she said.
The two-day program was held in Sarawak, Kedah, Terengganu and Penang to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing which first happened in 1969 when Apollo 11 with astronaut Neil Armstrong along with others landed on the moon.
Eleven of the ETAs brought along their 200 students to experience and enjoy the event themselves by engaging with each other as well as inspired them.
She asked the students about their next dream and they answered, “We are going to Mars”.
She smiled and told the students, “Okay, if you are going to Mars, we need all the help we can get.”