GEORGE TOWN (Sept 2): Efforts to attract the interest of young people to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects cannot be left solely on the shoulders of the education ministry but should involve all parties, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.

He said all parties need to take responsibility in creating interest in the STEM field, starting from the school level, which is one of the main issues faced at the moment.

“What our responsibility now is to create interest among the students to make sure that they will go into the science stream especially the STEM field...actually this is one of our main issues now, but anyway we are working with various parties so that interest among students to enter the STEM field can be improved,” he said in a press conference at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Innovative Incubation Centre here Monday.

“So in this matter, we cannot give responsibility solely to the Education Ministry, there must be a synergy that has continuity not only at the Ministry of Education level, focusing on primary and secondary schools, but also at the Higher Education Ministry level."

Earlier, he visited SAINS@USM and Oppstar Technnology Sdn Bhd to witness the development of USM's strategic collaboration with the industry in empowering the country's electrical and electronic (E&E) industry in integrated circuit (IC) design.

Meanwhile, Zambry said demand for E&E products, especially involving technology, is very high at the moment and thus skilled manpower is needed to fill the needs in that field.

Therefore, he said the tripartite relationship involving industry, university, and government is important because it will have a big impact in producing a more skilled workforce.

"At the Higher Education Ministry level, we open the entire space to local researchers from universities to ensure that they can produce good results, especially in the world of semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) and so on," he added.

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