Press Statement By Violet Yong:
SUPP Youth Leader, had on 8 December 2021 claim that he will turn all the 7 primary schools and 4 secondary schools into Smart Schools. This is just wishful thinking and a pipe dream! His plan of turning all 11 schools into smart schools is by just putting ICT equipment and technologies in those schools.
I wish to inform Milton that putting technology into schools and not revamping the business processes and restructuring the curriculum does not make any school smart! Introduction of technology without the necessary curriculum restructuring, business process reengineering and policies changes will only introduce additional burden and stress to the school communities. Based on the studies carried out by UNESCO, sudden introduction of latest technology in schools usually result in a very low return of investment. It would amount to a total waste of public funds which could be put to better use to ease the issues faced by the constituents.
To ensure that our children learn well, we must engage the ministry of education and adopt a systemic change (whole system transformation) according to planed schedule so that the school communities can migrate into the new norm (smart school environment) seamlessly. Teachers’ retraining, children’s change management and learning support as well as parents outreach programmes must be carried out in unison to ensure effective uptake and programme. In short, Milton’s approach of dumping technology in schools will not only waste resources but will also upset the schools currently stress out operations thus resulting in students learning even less.
Of course we will make sure all our schools in not only Pending but in Sarawak is provided for with the necessary learning support so that our children have equal learning opportunity as any other children in Malaysia. When we are the state government we will make the state education department accountable to the people of Sarawak to ensure our students have equal access to educational equities. The more pressing issues are the disparity between our form 5 students who are still learning from home when their counterparts are having face-to-face classes. Our students had missed out the science practical lessons which will become a compulsory component in the coming SPM examination next year. Students in the rural and remote parts of Sarawak had been left behind because they had not have lessons since the beginning of the MCO! If we have sufficient representation, we will insist that the Ministry of Education come up with an amicable solution where our students are not at an disadvantage.
As government, we must understand the separation of powers, Education which is a federal matter is the responsibility of the federal government and we in the state will monitor and support our schools to ensure that all the schools can operate optimally with maximum outcome. Unlike Milton, who wants to take over the task of the executive branch of the government, we in DAP will focus on our core task that is the legislative branch to ensure the executive branch is well supported and can operate effectively and bring about the best outcome. This over reaching as pledge by Milton is also one of the reasons our state is still so far behind others because the civil servants are serving the elected politicians instead of the rakyat!
I personally hope that Milton will spend time to learn about the role and obligations of each branch of the government before running for office so as not to embarrass us politicians!
Violet Yong
DAP Candidate for Pending N.10
10.12.2021
