KUALA LUMPUR: The decreasing interest among Malaysian students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is a worrying trend, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He said the country lacked high-skilled engineers, despite producing engineering graduates that were of quality.
"There is a decrease in interest among students in STEM. This is worrying and the Education Ministry has taken several measures including urging parents to refocus on Mathematics and Science.
"Right now, we have a shortage of engineers. And although our engineers are good and are well-accepted, we still lack engineers with high skills, and there is a gap in the niche that we need.
"Therefore, there needs to be a focus on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and engineering education," he said during the Prime Minister's Question Time in Parliament today.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Dr Ku Abd Rahman Ku Ismail (Perikatan Nasional-Kubang Pasu), who had asked about the government's strategy to increase the science to arts ratio among students to 60:40.
Ku Abd Rahman said currently, the science to arts ratio was at 30:70, and it would take six to seven years to produce talent in the science field.
Anwar said in all meetings with foreign companies, the government stressed on the need for them to establish their own centre of excellence to train Malaysian talents.
Among these centres is the Blackberry's Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, and Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in Johor.
"For example, Siemens has collaboration with local companies, and (Chinese carmaker) Geely will establish an engineering university in Malaysia. For a start, Geely will take 300 of our engineers to China to make preparations.
"I agree that if Malaysia does not do anything immediately, we will be on the losing end, because the focus now is no longer on low-end industries, but high-end ones," he added.
The Tambun member of parliament also said he asked local universities to set up AI faculties, starting with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
"They must streamline their activities with all universities that have AI programmes to meet a portion of our needs," he added.
