The Bidayuh should not be complacent with the community’s achievements in the field of education as there was no truth to claims that the community has the highest percentage of graduates.
Head of assistant directors of the State Planing Unit in the Chief Minister Department, Nicholas Amin said according to the previous data there was less than three percent Bidayuh who are graduates.
“Now the percentage could be four to five percent as more Bidayuh are entering universities,” said Nicholas in his paper presented at the Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) Youth Conference for Bau-Lundu Zone at Bau Civic Centre yesterday.
He said the community needs to set their target to produce 40,000 Bidayuh graduates in all fields by the year 2020.
The present Bidayuh population is approximately 200,000.
In general the Bidayuh are still behind the other races in the field of education, particularly in the technical and skilled trainings.
“The rate of illiteracy is also still high and the community should look into the problem to find solutions to immediately resolve it,” he pointed out.
Nicholas further said the Bidayuh must continue to realize that education is the key to be successful in life.
As such he said the vision to have at least one graduate in every Bidayuh family by the year 2010 should continue.
“Our community need to realize that education is very important because only with good education can ones be successful in their life,” he added.
Hence Nicholas urged Bidayuh parents to give priority to their children educations and not wasting their income on things like buying 4-digit numbers and consuming alcohol.
Touching on poverty among the community, Nicholas said it is still the main concern with the rate of hardcore poor in the community is still quite high, the problem that must be addressed urgently.
When asked later after presenting his paper Nicholas said he could not provide the percentage because after 2008 there was no data according to the ethnic group.
“The only available data was on the percentage under the Bumiputera group. I have asked for the data but it has not been release to me.
“If we want to know the exact percentage or numberm, what we can do is to conduct our own study,” he added.
Nicholas urged the Bidayuh community leaders to work harder to assist the hardcore poor Bidayuh to get the necessary assistance from the government like the e-kasih scheme and the housing project for the hardcore poor (PPRT).
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