This is a response to a question posed by an acquaintance on Facebook. He attended the 'Borneo States Symposium' held on the 27th July 2024 in Kuching organized by The Sarawak Initiatives & Sabah Action Body Advocating Rights (SABAR), on a panel about education autonomy in the Borneo States. He was wondering why the panelists (consisting of activists, politicians, and civil servants) from Sabah were soft-spoken and were not as demanding as their Sarawakian counterparts. My response here is to address his question rather than to respond to the statements of the panelists. (I have already posted this in his comment section but I just want to document it properly on my blog. Disclaimer: I wasn't at the symposium - I wish I was though.)
These are some of my insights based on four aspects: political leadership, ministerial administration, and state policy:
1. Political leadership
Sabah is more fragmented than Sarawak. If it's fragmented, it's difficult to unite for the sake of education autonomy. State advancement and agenda should be above political party interests. Dr. Arnold Puyok has elaborated on this in his article - read here.
2. Ministerial administration
Ministerial portfolios specifically for education do not exist in Sabah. However, Kementerian Sains Teknologi dan Inovasi (KSTI) Sabah does a lot of programs on STEM education, and it's part of their ministry objectives. So Sabah at least has some autonomy in this area, but I'm guessing when it comes to the issue of education autonomy in Sabah, in comparison with Sarawak, what people have in mind is the implementation of DLP. Sabah can actually do this; they just need to be innovative in terms of how they can do so by looking into specific state ordinances/enactments and available resources. The DLP curriculum still comes from MOE, but implementation-wise they need to look into opportunities to further the DLP cause using state resources, just like how Sarawak was able to do so.
3. State policies
Perhaps Sabah needs to have a specific ordinance on education to ensure continuity but Sabahan legislators could just take advantage of existing ordinances/enactments that can stimulate education autonomy within the state, alongside taking advantage of state resources. For example, the teaching of the Kadazandusun language (curriculum development, teacher training, and recruitment are from MOE) in the state can be empowered through the Sabah Heritage Enactment 2017.
I might have missed out on some, but these are the few insights that I can offer. If you have any additional insights or comments to refine mine you may do so in the comments!
I think it's a misconception that Sarawak has autonomy over education when in fact the curriculum, teacher recruitment, and teacher training are still all under the responsibility of MOE, it's not directly from the Sarawak government. However, the image of Sarawak having education autonomy comes from its united, proactive, and innovative approach to policymaking when it comes to education in the state because they can use whatever state policies and resources that they have without overriding the Ministry of Education's directives. This pattern fits with the concept of 'Cohesion' instead of 'autonomy'. ‘Cohesion' attempts to ensure the entire system's integrity by connecting all layers through mutual respect, common interest, and solidarity (Popelier, 2022). All of what Sarawak is doing in education is aligned with MOE's policy goals, thus maintaining mutual respect, common interest, and solidarity between MOE and Sarawak.
References:
Popelier, P. (2022). Dynamic federalism: A new theory for cohesion and regional autonomy. Routledge.
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