KOTA KINABALU: Sabahan youth will risk falling further behind in mastering subjects like English, science and mathematics with the omission of funding for the dual learning programme (DLP) in primary and secondary schools in next year’s state Budget.
Parti Warisan’s Pritchard Gumbaris said the DLP was crucial to enable Sabah students, especially in rural areas, to master these subjects while at the same time increase their employability once they finished school.
The political secretary to the Warisan deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking said Sarawak had spent millions of ringgit since 2019 to boost the DLP in their state.
“And in fact, the state had recently set up its own DLP known as DLP Sarawak,” he said, in a statement on Wednesday (Nov 20).
“Sarawak is ambitious to make English as a medium for science and maths in the secondary schools by 2026 but how about Sabah?
“This is indeed saddening and our Sabahan students should not pay the price and be left out,” added Gumbaris.
He said the Penampang Warisan division had passed several resolutions in its annual general meeting (AGM) on Nov 17 that, among others, will ensure DLP become a priority for the state and receive the requisite fundings for its implementation.
Should the party receive the mandate from the people in the upcoming state election, he said, the division’s immediate focus was to ensure DLP was implemented in schools not only in Penampang but also other Sabah districts.
“And through this agenda, we will also ensure Warisan form a strategic partnership between the Parent Action Group for Education (Page), National Union of Teaching Profession and Education Ministry to boost DLP in the state,” said Gumbaris.
It was reported earlier this month that the Sarawak Education Department aimed to extend the DLP to secondary schools in the state by 2026.
