KUCHING: There are 651 schools in Sarawak that have been identified with less than 150 pupils.
Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research, Dato’ Sri Michael Manyin Jawong said with less than 300 students, there are1,004 schools.
“The ideal one (ideal number of pupils) should be 300 to 400 per school,” Manyin disclosed at a press conference after the official closing of the 2nd International Conference on Special Education (ICSE 2017) by Minister of Education Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here on Wednesday.
Manyin said a two-day lab conducted by the Education Department together with his Ministry had recommended that these smaller schools be merged or a number of them be closed.
“But the biggest obstacle is that parents may no like it. So we are going to have a roadshow this month and next month in trying to convince the parents that they look at the bigger picture,” he said.
According to Manyin, as long as long as these schools are small, they can never have good performance, because, firstly, the resources are not there; secondly, competitive environment is not there, and thirdly, specialists teachers cannot be sent there to teach all the subjects as the number of students is too small.
“So once you don’t have the specialist teachers, it will mean that a BM teacher may be teaching Mathematic or Science so Science and Math need to start from Primary 1 level, and not at Form 1.
History and Geography can start in Form 4 or Form 6 but not Science and Maths.
“So that is why for a lot of rural students, their interests in Science and Maths is still at Primary 1,” said Manyin.
According to him, a study conducted by professional that if students are taught the wrong way two or three years at Primary level, the damage is irreversible.
“So it meas that these students will not be able to enter tertiary education later on.
“So that is the reason why we are going to have a roadshow to tell parents to look at the bigger picture,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to Mahdzir, Parent Teacher Association (PTAs), NGOs, opinion leaders and longhouses people need to give views.
“There are two options – you stay at the old schools with 15 students or you can continue. Another option is they merge, and in our ruling, parents have to agree,” he said.
