Education is Sabah’s main agenda, says chief minister

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 24 — Sabah is committed to focusing on the education sector as its main agenda towards producing more highly-educated people as skilled, quality human capital in driving the state’s development in the future.

Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said full commitment and cooperation were needed from educational institutions, educators and parents to form a mass movement in ensuring empowerment and excellence of the state’s education sector.

He said this included ensuring the education system and content were well-structured and meeting the employment market needs, in tandem with current global and technological changes.

“The education sector in Sabah must see a mass movement, it should not be regarded as small but instead be the main agenda in our effort to ensure that Sabah enjoys rapid development and its people are highly educated,” he said at the handing-out of Sabah Foundation’s one-off education aid, here, today.

Also present were state Minister of Education and Innovation Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) board of directors chairman Datuk KY Mustafa, Sabah Foundation director Datuk Jamalul Kiram Mohd Zakaria and UMS vice-chancellor Datuk Dr D. Kamarudin D. Mudin.

Mohd Shafie said the state government’s effort to establish more technical and vocational colleges was among the commitments to ensure the enrolment of Sabah students in this field to meet the needs of the industries to be developed in the state.

“Knowledgeable and skilled manpower is important for Sabah to ensure they have the capability to manage the state’s wealth for the benefit of the people,” he added.

On today’s event, Mohd Shafie said the state government’s initiative through the Sabah Foundation Group was to assist students from B40 households in the urban area in pursuing education.

Of the 1,300 recipients, 1,000 students from UMS received RM1,000 each, while each of the remaining 300 students from 10 secondary schools in the Kota Kinabalu area received RM200 each. ― Bernama