WHILE Budget 2024 shows a significant commitment to nurturing a generation skilled in science, technology and innovation (STI), the education system must be restructured to align teaching and learning strategies with governance, to work towards a common goal.
This, said National Association of Private Educational Institutions (Napei) secretary-general Dr Teh Choon Jin, is necessary to ensure that the budget allocation achieves its goals.
“Funding alone is not enough.
“The global landscape of higher education has transformed with the rapid globalisation of education and the increasing demand for lifelong learning.
“The adoption of flexible learning pathways is crucial to make education more accessible and responsive to the needs of students,” said Teh, who is also Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) senior director and registrar.
It is crucial to democratise science and ensure flexible learning pathways that allow students with a passion for STEM to pursue their dreams, regardless of their previous academic qualifications, he said.
By making STEM education more accessible and inclusive, Malaysia can hope to reverse the declining trend in STEM enrolment and prepare the next generation for the demands of a rapidly changing world, he added.
He said it is essential to address rigid programme standards that may hinder students from pursuing STEM fields.
Citing an example, he said the third edition of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) Programme Standards for Computing released in June this year did not take into account the country’s talent needs in fields like computer science, software engineering and data science.
“The irony is that a student with only one credit in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) can enrol at the certificate level, before proceeding to do a diploma and thereafter a degree in these fields, whereas a student with five SPM credits is not allowed to do so if he or she did not get a credit in Maths.
“This is despite the latter having completed a foundation programme where Maths and Further Maths are among the subjects taught.
“If students can do Maths at a higher level than the SPM, despite not having a credit in the Form Five exam, they should be allowed a pathway to do computer science, software engineering or data science, if we are to provide students with flexible learning pathways that promote lifelong learning,” he said, adding that preparing a technologically skilled workforce also strengthens Malaysia’s global competitiveness, and cultivates technological innovation and development for economic growth.
STEM-related skills are important for jobs brought on by disruptive technologies, the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) noted.
Based on ASM’s analysis of the top emerging jobs in 2025 from the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report 2020”, nine out of the top 10 in-demand jobs of the future will be related to STEM.
These jobs will require talent with both the knowledge and technical skills to adapt to these changes, the academy said.
Use STEM funds to:
- Set up STEM and AI facilities for in-depth learning.
- Promote digital literacy and foster critical thinking, problem-solving and innovation.
- Encourage more students to take up STEM at the tertiary level.
- Develop and implement up-to-date curricula in STEM and AI.
- Purchase state-of-the-art equipment and set up advanced labs for hands-on learning.
- Invest in the training and professional development of educators in schools and in higher learning institutions.
- Support partnerships between educational institutions and the industry to provide students with real-world exposure and internships/job opportunities
- .Champion personalised and experiential learning according to students’ interests and potential.
- Capture and analyse holistic student profiling through technologies such as AI and big data analytics to customise learning modules and assessments.
- Connect educators with high-tech SMEs and educational technology (EdTech) startups to create education tools tailored for classrooms.
- As of March, there are 251 EdTech startups, with six of the top 10 startups, in terms of funding, focused on STEM education at the primary and secondary levels.
- Modernise classroom/computer labs and ensure well-equipped and functional science labs in schools for teaching and learning of science subjects, particularly Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
- Adopt inquiry-based science education pedagogy and a learner-driven, interactive model to spark curiosity and interest.
- Involve the Education (primary and secondary schooling), Higher Education (post-secondary and tertiary education), Science, Technology and Innovation (commercialisation and tech-based enterprises) and Human Resource Ministries (workforce, reskilling and upskilling); training providers; scientific community; worker unions; STEM enculturation centres; citizen science groups; and high-tech companies in the STEM special committee. Multi-sectoral feedback will prevent a government-centric approach to addressing the decline in STEM interest.Source: Napei & ASM
