KUCHING: Strengthening teacher quality, school leadership and parental involvement is crucial to improving the educational achievement of Malay students and narrowing long-standing learning gaps.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Leadership Institute of the Sarawak Civil Service, Datuk Dr Azhar Ahmad, said education stakeholders must address the issue seriously by focusing on factors that can drive meaningful change.
He said quality teachers and school leaders play the most important role in determining student outcomes.
“Based on studies, quality teachers compared to less effective teachers can contribute up to 53 per cent towards student achievement within three years. Be a good teacher and be a good leader. Otherwise, we will place our children on the wrong path, and the consequences can be very serious,” he said.
He said this during his talk entitled ‘Education: An Agenda for the Excellence of the Ummah’ at the Sarawak Malay Graduates Convention 2026 (KGM 2.0) at Institute of Teacher Education (IPG) Batu Lintang Campus here today (June 11).
Azhar, who previously served as the Director of the Sarawak Education Department (JPN), said efforts to improve educational outcomes should also involve stronger support from parents and the wider community.
Referring to education theories by Mortimore and Ibnu Khaldun, he said effective schools are built on four key pillars, namely strong leadership and management, quality teachers, student readiness and community support, particularly from parents.
He also raised concerns over learning poverty, particularly the mastery of basic reading, writing and arithmetic (3M) skills among primary school children.
“Weak 3M foundations make it difficult for students to excel in later stages of education and reduce their competitiveness in critical fields such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
“Aggregate education data also showed that the academic performance of Muslim students was generally encouraging at primary level but tended to decline as they progressed to secondary school,” he explained.
He added that socio-economic factors, parental involvement and student discipline were among the contributing factors that should be addressed collectively.
At the same time, he said parents should take a more proactive role in planning and supporting their children’s education from an early stage if they want future generations to compete successfully.
“We need to look at ourselves and ask where we stand and what we can do to improve. If we want to compete with others, we must take education seriously and work together to create lasting change,” he said.
