Like Chinese community, state govt also places education as priority – Dr Annuar

Dr Annuar (left) going around SM Catholic to check on reopening of the school yesterday.

SIBU (Oct 5): The state government shares the same sentiment with the Chinese community in placing education as priority.

In view of that, the state government also wants Chinese vernacular schools to remain in Sarawak, said Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee.

“For these reasons, the state government gave recognition to the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) and allocated a total of RM3 million for Chinese secondary schools across the state in 2015.

“The amount is increased by RM1 million annually and this year the amount has reached RM9 million,” he said in his Facebook post yesterday.

Dr Annuar said other than that, the state government had provided a piece of land for Sarawak Private Secondary Schools Charitable Trust to ensure financial continuity of the Chinese secondary schools in the state.

In this regard, he said he did not see himself as serving the interests of the Malays or certain races only.

“I grew up in a town where the majority are Chinese. Sarawak is my homeland, this is our place of origin, the Chinese community are not ‘pendatang’ (immigrants) in Sarawak!” he stressed.

Earlier, Dr Annuar, who is also Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, visited Sekolah Menengah (SM) Catholic to check on the first day of school reopening for Form 5 and Form 6 students.

“SM Catholic has 230 Senior 3 students aged 18. Senior 2 students aged 17 will start their school session after two weeks.

“To all teachers and students, I pray for their safety and health so that they are always in good condition,” he said.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/2Yihgcc
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