Putrajaya-Sarawak meeting agrees in principle to state’s wish for devolution of education power

KUCHING, Oct 26 — A meeting between federal and Sarawak officials has agreed in principle to Sarawak’s desire for devolution of power in critical areas of education, the state Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development (MEITD) said today.

It said the meeting, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, also agreed that for matters which are operational and administrative in nature, both the Ministry of Education (MoE) and MEITD will meet to hash out the details.

“Director-General of Education Datuk Pkharuddin Ghazali was tasked to initiate a discussion on legal matters pertaining to the devolution of authority for education, involving the federal Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) and the Sarawak Attorney General’s Chambers,” MEITD said in a statement.

MEITD said the deputy prime minister has instructed for an immediate committee to be set up between MoE and MEITD to share data on education in Sarawak, particularly on student drop-out and student achievement data.

“This is in order for MEITD and the state Economic Planning Unit (EPU) to assess the effectiveness of the various state-initiated intervention programmes, as well as to assist MoE,” it said.

“In addition, the meeting also discussed the issue of the shortage of more than 3,000 teachers in Sarawak,” it said.

MEITD added that Fadillah had instructed the Education Service Commission (ESC) and MoE to urgently examine the matter and to propose solutions, including allowing interim teachers to be absorbed into the teaching profession.

It said Fadillah requested that all parties submit their detailed reports on the actions agreed within one month for it to be escalated to the main committee of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

The federal delegation was led by Fadillah, with top officials from the various federal ministries and departments that included the MoE, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Education Service Commission, Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU) of Prime Minister’s Department AGC as members of the delegation.

The Sarawak delegation consisted of state Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn, state Deputy Ministers Datuk Dr Annuar Rapa’ee and Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, Permanent Secretary Datuk Azmi Bujang, State Attorney General Datuk Saferi Ali, officers of MEITD and the Economic Planning Unit Sarawak.

The meeting was held as a follow-up to the previous meeting on Devolution of Education to Sarawak which was held in August 2023.