Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Lee Kim Shin (standing sixth from left) posing with the representatives of schools after the handing over of financial grants amounting to RM4.9 million in Miri.
MIRI: English will be the focal point of Artificial Intelligence (A.I) in the coming years. Because of that, Sarawakians must master English in order to acquire new knowledge and technical skills to succeed. Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg gave the advice at the launching of the Sarawak English Language Education Symposium (SELES 2018) held at Mega Hotel here yesterday morning.
“English is a universal language. For example, during a conference or meeting, if you do not know how to speak and understand English, you feel isolated in that particular meeting or conference. You cannot participate effectively in these international conversations,” he said.
“Like it or not, English is the most widely spoken language in the world, besides being the lingua franca or global link language of education, technology and trade in most parts of the world,” he explained.
Abang Johari added that proficiency in English would help workers and students to be life-long learners as most of the learning materials, especially those online, were in English. “Today’s students are very fortunate, unlike those 30 years ago. Today, you can easily access Google via your Ipad or smartphones to search for the materials that you want.
“ 30 years ago, we had to go to the library in order to look for particular books for our assignments or research. Sometimes, we had to queue up, waiting for our turn to borrow books. Majority of the materials were in English. That is why it is crucial for us to master the language,” he added.
“Even the Royal Malaysia Police has started to use English besides Bahasa Malaysia in its work,” he added. Also present were Minister of Education, Science and Technology Research, Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong, Assistant Minister of Women, Family and Childhood Development , Rosey Yunus, Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Lee Kim Shin and more than 2,000 teachers and education officers from throughout the state.
Manyin, in his speech earlier on, disclosed that the state government and his ministry were taking steps to improve the proficiency of English language in Sarawak. “Since 2016, the state government has made English the second official language.
It was announced by the late Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Adenan Satem and later, the policy was continued by our current Chief Minister, Abang Johari,” said Manyin.
After the launching of SELES 2018, Abang Johari presented financial grants amounting to RM4.9million to 15 schools in the state. This was the second time SELES was organised. The first was held in Kuching last year.
