KOTA KINABALU, May 4 — Sabah’s student enrolment rate for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects is still low compared to other states, said Deputy Higher Education Ministry Datuk Mustapha Sakmud.

Mustapha said according to statistics, only 12.37 per cent of students throughout the state have enrolled for STEM subjects, which is relatively low when compared to the national average of 22.8 per cent.

He stressed a need to empower STEM learning and teaching in the state, calling on the Sabah State Education Department (JPNS) to think of new methods to attract more students into the fields.

The Sepanggar Member of Parliament (MP) said this is because the nation is in need of talents who are knowledgeable in STEM in order to meet the rising demands of investors.

“In the empowerment of STEM, my ministry is of the opinion that there is still room and space to be explored in the effort to improve the access and quality of STEM learning among students.

“My ministry has taken several efforts in this regard, such as establishing STEM centres at universities to coordinate with various agencies including schools to draw more student interest in the STEM fields.

“We are also training graduates to become STEM ambassadors who will go down to schools for the same purpose. In addition, scholarships are also provided specifically for students taking STEM subjects,” he said when officiating the state-level Higher Education Ministry (KPT) Carnival at Mini Putrajaya here today.

Meanwhile, Mustapha said that students in the Sepanggar area will soon benefit from a recently established collaboration between the district’s parliamentary office and Uni Enrol Sdn Bhd, which aims to help students in Sabah pursue higher education learning through the Uni Enrol system.

He explained that the Uni Enrol website at unienrol.com will allow students in his constituency to be course-matched with more than 100 private institutes of higher learning (IPTS) in Malaysia while also making them eligible for more than 500 types of scholarship offered.

He said they will monitor the effectiveness of this system starting from the people in his constituency, especially the younger generation, and if this strategic collaboration shows good results, the system will be expanded to other areas in the state.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both parties for the implementation of this system in Sepanggar was signed at the programme today, witnessed by Mustapha.

Regarding the state-level KPT Carnival, the deputy minister said it is a two-pronged approach to culturalise higher education learning among the community through his ministry’s initiatives and to tighten the relationship between his ministry and the local folks through a Hari Raya open house.

He said more than 5,000 visitors had turned up at the inaugural event which featured informational booths set up by five IPTS and two public institutes of higher learning to provide information such as course and institute options for prospective students.

“The response for this carnival has been good so far, so we hope to continue this programme in the following years,” he said. — The Borneo Post

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