KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) is pressing the state government to take over from Putrajaya and run its own education system in Sabah. 

PBS deputy president Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai said if the Sabah government was serious about preparing its youths to face the demands of the job market and serve the country better, then it had no choice but to divorce itself from the "defective" education policy of the federal government.

He said Sabah could do without the "racist" and "short-sighted" education policies of the federal government.

"The matriculation system, which the federal government has shamelessly defended, is only one of the many unfair policies, which we don't need to endure anymore. 

"The rest includes university entrance, scholarships and many others.

"Sabah does not need a federal education ministry that finds excuses in not recognising the Unified Examination Certificate which, until today, only amounts to empty promises after their successful electoral mandate.

"Sabah can do much better by not wasting our time and money over the stupid, but self-inflicted, dilemma of whether to wear white shoes or black shoes in schools," Dr Yee said in a statement on Saturday (May 18).

He expressed hope that the current Parti Warisan Sabah-led administration, which had set up its own education ministry, was not "merely paying lip service".

Dr Yee's comments followed reports on comments by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik linking the matriculation quota system with allegedly unequal job opportunities for bumiputeras in the private sector.

Maszlee, who was addressing a question-and-answer session in Universiti Sains Malaysia on Thursday (May 16), reportedly said that if Malaysians did not want the quota system, then job opportunities should not be denied to bumiputeras.

He was referring to some companies requiring job applicants to have knowledge of Mandarin.

Dr Maszlee has since faced a barrage of criticisms over his comments.