Thursday 10 January 2019

Is STEM Education Important?


According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) occupations are growing at 17% annually in the U.S. All other occupations are growing at 9.8%. STEM degree holders have higher income than non-STEM holders. STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy and generates the next generation of innovators. But the reality in the U.S. is that scores on average for mathematics and science are lagging behind other developing countries.

A curriculum that is STEM-based has real-life situations to help students learn. STEM activities provide hands-on and minds-on lessons for students. Making maths and science fun and interesting will help students not only learn but create a passion for it. It breaks gender, ethnic, racial or income gaps for a global economy.

What about Malaysia? The anticipation is one million new STEM careers in Malaysia by 2020. According to Kelly Services, fresh STEM graduates could expect salaries of RM3,900 and above as automation engineer or Java developer (RM5,200). But the reality is the enrolment of students in science stream (Form 5) has seen a steady drop of 6,000 (on average) per year since 2012. Enrolment now is 167,962 out of a total of 375,794, or about 45%. The real worry is that the highest unemployment among all graduates in the country are those from the science and technical courses at 20.7%.

 Will MITI, Education Ministry and the private sector work on ideas to fulfil Malaysia’s ambition of Industry 4.0?

Reference
Star Online, Sunday 21 October 2018 and others




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