Sarawak education minister assures standard assessment, set for 2025, will not cause undue stress

Malay Mail

KUCHING, Nov 27 — State Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Seri Roland Sagah Wee Inn today gave his assurance that the standard assessment will not cause undue stress to students, teachers, schools, and parents.

He said the proposed standard assessments for Primary 6 to commence in 2025 and Form 3 at a later stage had received the support of the federal Ministry of Education (MoE).

“However, it is still premature to elaborate as we are still deliberating the exercise, but suffice to say, the assessment will focus on Dual Language Programme (DLP) subjects, namely Science, Mathematics, and the English language,” he said in his winding-up speech at the state legislative assembly here.

Sagah said such an assessment is vital as it will serve to gauge the effectiveness of the DLP, alongside other initiatives which the state ministry has put in place to increase the uptake of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in schools.

He also told the state assembly that a total of 606 teachers have been trained under the Teaching of Science and Maths in English programme, also known as DLP Sarawak, this year, on top of the 5,200 who were trained earlier.

“Additionally, 1,700 non-option Science, Mathematics and English teachers have also been trained,” he said, explaining that non-option teachers are those who were not specifically trained for these subjects during their teacher-training degree.

He said Sarawak is fortunate that the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) is collaborating with his ministry, at its own cost, to implement for Mathematics Pedagogical Learning, Understanding and Support (Maths Plus).

He added it is a four-year collaboration involving 50 primary schools with 100 teachers that will benefit about 13,000 students.

He said through the initiatives, his ministry is doing its part to improve the quality of education for the Sarawak students.

Sagah said a total of 198 out of 1,020 dilapidated schools in Sarawak have been repaired and upgraded, while another 309 schools are currently at various stages of renovations.

He said 461 out of 1,020 schools were categorised as the “worst lot” by MoE in 2019.

He said the federal MoE is giving priority to these schools for repairs and upgrading.