Dr Roland Dom Mattu.
MIRI: Sarawak’s GPS state government should disclose the actual numbers of Sarawakians recruited into teachers training institutes by the Ministry of Education, said PSB Mulu deputy chairman Dr Roland Dom Mattu.
He said the late chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem wanted the ratio of teachers serving in the state as 90 per cent Sarawakian but this had not materialised and Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong should disclose the teachers recruitment figures to the public.
“The statistics must be made public to show it is actually happening as the late Adenan already made it a policy of 90 per cent of teachers serving in Sarawak must be locals but it never happened,“ he said.
He called for more Sarawakians to be recruited for training and that the current GPS state government should pressure the federal government.
“Now is really the time the state government must enforce this as it did with the petroleum royalty as Federal Government really need both Sabah and Sarawak to survive politically, “ he said.
He this in response to the advertisement by the ministry announcing the June intake which would be opened for registration from March 15 onwards.
The ministry in its website announced its offer to qualified SPM holders between 2018 to 2020 who are interested in teaching to apply while those who excelled in SPM in 2020 to apply for its overseas learning programme.
Dr Roland encouraged Sarawakians to take up these offers but said it is imperative that there was political will by GPS to follow up on such recruitment programme and ensure that Sarawakians were duly recruited even though education is under the federal jurisdiction.
“They always said not enough Sarawakian candidates who are qualified but I wonder whether that is true?“ he questioned.
Dr Roland, who is from Bario, is the first Kelabit and Orang Ulu doctor and first Dayak Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, United Kingdom and SCRIPS (Sarawak Society for Indigenous Rights coordinator for the Kelabit Highlands.
He said issues such as improvement in education and training in useful skills, the education to propel the Dayak community forward and upward and standard of tertiary must be by merit only were close to his heart.
Meanwhile, he said GPS should not be lulled into complacency with the additional RM2 billion in state coffers collected from Petronas in sales tax of petroleum product exports under its Oil and Mining Ordinance, saying it was pittance compared to the royalties “lost” .
He was referring to the 20 percent royalty initially sought by GPS from the federal government which paid five percent royalty since the Petroleum Development Act was enacted in 1974 which was not pursued after Petronas agreed in 2020 to pay the sales tax sought by the Sarawak state government.
GPS has welcomed the additional revenue, saying this has been put to good use in infrastructure development and education.
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