SANDAKAN: The Sabah Education Department remains committed to ensuring that the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education agenda continues to be a top priority.
Its Head of Student Counselling and Career Management Unit, Student Development Sector, Mardianah Guldam, said the department also aims to close the gap in awareness regarding career opportunities in the STEM field.
Currently, under the Education Ministry’s (MoE) 60:40 Policy, the target enrolment ratio for upper secondary students is 60 per cent for the science/technical stream compared to 40 per cent for the arts/social sciences stream.
She said this policy underscores the importance of science and technology in the national education system in producing a highly skilled workforce.
She said this when representing Sabah Education Director Datuk Raisin Saidin at the officiation of SMK Sandakan II’s STEM Career Day held at the school here on Saturday.
The programme, themed “Explore, Create and Change the World with STEM”, was co-organised by the school in collaboration with Yayasan Petronas.
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Participants comprised Form 1 to Form 6 students from 14 schools, alongside the Integrated Special Education Programme (PPKI). The event featured 24 exhibitors, including Petronas, and 22 booths showcasing various STEM-related activities.
Commenting on the event, she said the programme was seen as more than just a typical exhibition.
“With interactive exhibitions, experiments and exploration activities, we are actually building a bridge between classroom theory and the reality of the outside world,” she added.
Meanwhile, she said collaborations of this nature among stakeholders serve as a strong model for driving educational transformation.
She noted that STEM was introduced, among other reasons, to support national economic growth and is incorporated into the Malaysia Education Blueprint (PPPM) 2013–2025.
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