SIBU: Sarawak will ignore the hoo-ha over its decision to use the English language alongside Malay in its administration, says its deputy education, innovation and talent development minister Dr Annuar Rapaee.
He said the state government, in fact, had been going all out to ensure its students would be well-versed in English to enable them to excel in their studies and have a bright future.
“If they don’t like English, let them be, but for us, we are moving ahead with our efforts to improve English proficiency among our students,” he told reporters after presenting the Student Activity Books and Learning Aid to nine schools in the Nangka state constituency here.
This was part of the initiatives that Annuar had taken as the Nangka assemblyman in collaboration with a local education foundation, Farley Foundation, to obtain 1,000 books to meet the needs of primary school children from 22 longhouses in his constituency.
“These books are suitable for that age but focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). They are about the galaxy, animals and plants. They cost not more than RM20 each,” he said.
Annuar said about 100 books would be kept at each longhouse for a period of three months and would thereafter be rotated among the longhouses involved.
Stressing that reading is important for one to gain knowledge, he hoped the effort would help inculcate reading habit among pupils at the longhouses.
“In three to five years, they can become excellent students. But the question now is how to ensure they would read the books provided for them?
“There must be a way to record the data on how many books the students read to ensure the effectiveness of the reading programme.
“I’ll talk to my IT assistants on how to record the data. We will probably create an application for it as data is crucial in ensuring the effectiveness of the programme,” he added.
Apart from the reading programme, his service centre has resumed the free tuition classes for pupils at the longhouses involved. These were halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The tuition classes, held four times a week, at the longhouses’ communal space called “ruai”, start at 6.30pm and end at 9pm, with the longhouse chiefs monitoring the pupils’ attendance.