COMMENT Given some of the challenges faced by the rural areas in Sarawak highlighted in the previous articles in this series, it is not surprising that the education indicators also show a serious urban-rural divide in this state.

While there are almost universal completion rates at the primary level across all states, the situation is less uniform for secondary school completion rates. According to the UNDP’s Millennium Development Goals 2015 report for Malaysia, Sarawak has the lowest secondary school completion rate at 83.4 percent compared to 89.3 percent for Selangor and 92.4 percent for Pahang. (See Figure 1 below)

With about 50,000 secondary schools students in every cohort in Sarawak, this means that approximately 8,500 students from every cohort fail to complete their education up to the SPM level. Over time, these dropouts will add to the number of lowly-educated members of the Sarawak workforce.