Full education autonomy too costly for Sarawak, says state minister

Seeking full autonomy over education would be too costly for Sarawak, says the state’s education, innovation and talent development minister Roland Sagah Wee Inn.

Sagah said teachers’ salaries alone would cost the state a significant amount every year, Borneo Post reported.

“We cannot afford to spend that amount of money. Imagine how many teachers and schools there are. If we are going to spend it, we might as well put it toward other developments instead,” he was quoted as saying after officiating the 4th International Conference on Educational Research and Innovation 2026 in Kuching today.

At the same time, he said, major federal taxes are taken by the central government.

Sagah said major administrative issues between the state government and the education ministry had been resolved.

He said Sarawak’s priority was to ensure greater flexibility in managing education matters.

“Don’t misunderstand the meaning of autonomy. As long as there is ease of doing business, that is enough for us,” he said.

He cited the agreement allowing English to be used to teach Mathematics and Science, as well as the Sarawak Dual Language Programme Assessment Test (UP-DLP) as examples of progress in the state’s education autonomy.

Sagah also said Sarawak was incorporating artificial intelligence and digitalisation into the syllabuses of all teacher training institutes to help educators use the technology in their work.

He said the state was still behind developed countries in this area, but was catching up.