JOHOR BARU, Aug 20 —The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) will set up a special committee to promote greater community awareness especially among youth on the importance of science, technology and innovation (STI).

Its minister, Chang Lih Kang said the committee will involve various parties including the Education Ministry (KPM), Higher Education Ministry (KPT) and also Human Resources Ministry (KSM).

"The move is taken as statistics show the wanning interest among school leavers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) which showed a worrying trend as Malaysia is moving towards an advanced nation by 2030.

"The special committee has the role of looking for the best approach to promote the fields of STEM. Initial works have been carried out even though this committee will start officially in two to three months,” he told reporters after opening the Johor level National Science Week at the Larkin Indoor Stadium here today.

Also present were state Education, Information and Communications Committee chairman Norlizah Noh and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) deputy chancellor (Research and Innovation) Prof Dr Rosli Md Illias.

Chang said that among the factors causing the STEM field to be less popular among the country’s youth is the difficulty in mastering the stream, the dry teaching process and low employment prospects in the field.

He said it is the government’s responsibility to promote STEM from the early stages of schooling, whether through formal or less formal education, including diversifying teaching methods such as holding the National Science Week programme.

"In addition, we also call on any industry players, especially large industrial companies to equally apply science and technology in their enterprises, all of these are being worked on by Mosti to empower interest in the STEM field,” he said.

On July 20, Chang was reported to have said that based on KPM data last year, the percentage of upper secondary students participating in the STEM stream from 2017 to 2022 recorded a decrease from 45.20 per cent to 40.94 per cent.

Chang was quoted as saying that the same study also showed interest in science among students fell to 40 per cent in 2022 compared to 66.7 per cent in 2019. — Bernama