KUCHING, Aug 31 — Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg tonight said the Sarawak government will not politicise education for any reason as it will not bring any benefit to the state and people.

"The moment you politicise education, there will be reactions and counter-reactions and there will be no end to it and the country will decline. We want the county to rise.

"But if we use education to raise our standard of living, then it is the tool by which we move forward. It should not be treated as a tool to be politicised,” he said at the closing of the 10th Malaysian Chinese Independent Schools ball games championship 2023 here.

He said the state government considers Chinese education to be important and that is why it recognised the Unified Examination Certificates issued by the Chinese Independent Schools.

He said that the state government has assisted in constructing buildings for Chinese schools as well as given land to the schools to generate income.

"We are allocating RM10 million annually to the Chinese Independent Schools,” he said.

Abang Johari said apart from helping the Chinese Independent Schools, the state government has also set up international schools based on the Cambridge syllabus.

"On top of that, we also set up institutions of higher learning such as University Technology Sarawak and the Swinburne and Curtin Universities whose assets are owned by the state government, but the programmes are from the main campuses in Australia.

"What I am saying here is that we give support to quality education.

"If we want to increase the household incomes of the people, the state government must provide good quality education,” he said, adding that it is for this reason that the state government considers mastering English, Mandarin, and Bahasa Malaysia as crucial to the state and its people.

He said that he hopes Malaysia forges ahead successfully and Sarawak will do its part to build a united Malaysian nation.

A total of 43 Chinese Independent Schools throughout the country participated in the ball games championship.