The federal government should return the power of autonomy to Sarawak in respect to education as a matter of principle.

Under the Malaysia agreement, Article 15: Education states "the existing education system should be maintained under the control of the state government”.

Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem said whenever there is a change of education minister, the implementation of education policy at state level is affected.

"Whenever the minister change, the policy also change and ultimately affect the implementation of education in the state.

“Education policy must comply with the next generation, many promises have been made (the federal government) but not fully fulfilled," he said.

Sarawak should be given autonomy in education where the state government can improve student performance in various skills.

Its focus should be on creating more higher education centres that can produce skilled manpower in various fields of expertise for industry and agriculture.

Sarawak has a total land area as big as peninsular Malaysia and is able to accommodate even more higher education institutions for the benefit of the people of Sarawak, who are still lagging in development.

Higher education institutions in the fields of industry and agriculture could provide an opportunity to students who are not academically-inclined.

The students can choose the areas of skills they are interested in and when they graduate later can find employment or be self-employed thanks to the skills they developed.

Present manpower needs calls for more skilled and semi-skilled workers.

Besides vocational training for school-leavers, the government should introduce various new skills scheme to provide an alternative route for the industry to improve the skills of experienced workers.

The multi-skills scheme is to meet the special needs of workers in the management of major construction projects.

It aims to build a group of workers who are skilled in the management of multiple construction projects, who can provide more than one type of service on site.

Employers will have greater flexibility in deploying multi-skilled workers on site, thereby reducing downtime and increasing productivity.

We also want to propose that schooling hours are coordinate with office working hours to help working parents.

JOFFRI JARAIEE is Sarawak PAS commissioner-cum-Miri PAS chief.