Prime Minister Najib Razak on several occasions stressed the need for more young people to take up STEM education and careers to ensure a better future for the country.
However, according to a report in the New Straits Times (NST), there were insufficient students enrolling in the science fields in secondary school and tertiary institutions.
Based on the Science and Technology Human Capital Report and Science Outlook 2015 by Akademi Sains Malaysia, Malaysia needed at the very minimum 270,000 science students to take the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination annually.
However, there were only around 90,000 now, despite there being some 500,000 students entering Form Four every year.
Complicating matters was the fact that 12 per cent of science stream students in secondary schools migrated to non-STEM programmes at the tertiary level.
In the report, the Higher Education Ministry said it was promoting STEM among students, reaching out to researchers and industries, while also organising research and development exhibitions, publication of books and technology competitions.
It also said the Education Ministry and Akademi Sains Malaysia had their own programmes to encourage interest in STEM subjects among students, while other organisations such as BioTechCorp and Nano Malaysia, had been set up to create jobs in STEM-related fields.
“Efforts to increase interest in STEM are ongoing and will take time, but the ministry is confident that students and parents can see the potential of STEM in the long run,” said the ministry.
The report noted that educationists have warned that a lack of a STEM workforce would lead to a technical dependency on foreign workers.