TAMPARULI: Only 5.4 per cent of Form Four students in Sabah this year opted for the Science stream while an overwhelmingly 93 per cent chose to be in the Arts stream, a depressing trend as the country is advancing towards Vision 2020."The Government is deeply concerned by this phenomena. According to the Science Outlook Report published in 2014, the percentage of students taking science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) studies at all levels has gone down to only 20 per cent," said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau.
He said at one point, the number was quite high at 37 per cent. The Government has targeted a 60:40 ratio of science students to non-science students since 1967.
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Nevertheless, he is happy to note that the number of students taking the Science stream in Sabah this year rose by more than 1,000 students compared to last year.
Tangau said this during a press conference after the closing ceremony of the STI Programme for Educators: National Science Centre Educational Innovation, here, Friday.
A total of 40 teachers and 100 students from 16 primary schools in the district took part in the three-day programme aimed to increase educators' creativity and skills in the teaching and learning of science and mathematics through hands-on, hearts-on and minds-on approach.
It is hoped the programme will be able to encourage students' interest in Stem studies.
During the programme, the project called "Maths Made Simple" was announced the most innovative way of teaching Stem.
Tangau stated that his ministry through the National Science Council had been given the mandate by the work together with the Education Ministry and Higher Education Ministry to develop new strategies to increase students' interest in Stem.
"The programme today had successfully produced several innovations in terms of teaching and learning of science and mathematics subject where students will enjoy the learning process and be more excited about science instead of thinking that it is a difficult and boring subject.
"We are also hoping that we would be able to implement a new teaching and learning strategy which is enquiry-based learning for science education.
"Currently, we are doing a pilot project for this new approach in four schools in Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Terengganu and Sabah," he said.
The four schools selected for the programme, he said, were chosen because of their lower performance in the science and mathematics field.
However, after taking part in the project, Tangau said the four schools have surpassed the achievements of other high-performance schools.
"Principally, the system had been well-received. Once the study is concluded, we will propose it to the ministry.
In the meantime, we will present our findings to the National Science Centre where the Education Ministry is one of the 13 members," he said.
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