Anwar, who is also the finance minister, stressed the urgent need to boost student participation in STEM this year given its significance in national development.

“I will propose that at least 70% of students starting (to study at) boarding schools and residential colleges next year must choose the STEM stream,” he said at a Ramadan event with corporate entities and GLCs here this evening.

“We have companies like Infineon, Nvidia, Google and Microsoft (investing in Malaysia) and artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere now, yet our children are not taking up STEM subjects.”

Anwar said he had instructed the education ministry and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) to implement initiatives aimed at encouraging students to pursue STEM fields.

Last year, Anwar said the education ministry should prioritise mastery of three key subjects – science, mathematics and English – to support the nation’s development.

He said this was crucial due to curriculum shifts driven by emerging fields such as AI, green energy transition, digital technology and social media.

Anwar urges corporate sector to ‘adopt’ schools

Anwar also encouraged corporate entities and GLCs to “adopt” schools to help them tackle various infrastructure issues.

Anwar said he had instructed Treasury secretary-general Johan Mahmood Merican and the implementation coordination unit of the Prime Minister’s Department to coordinate the initiative with the education ministry.

“In 2023, there were 8,600 severely damaged toilets in schools across Malaysia. Imagine our children having to use such facilities, it is totally unacceptable as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

“The least we can do is try and resolve part of this problem. I think it is time that we undertake some measures to solve these problems.

“If we can directly monitor 200 schools, it will make a significant difference,” he added.