SIMANGGANG: The Sarawak government will build a common lab to ensure that school students have better access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning, especially in schools that do not have laboratory facilities.

Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Abdul Rahman Zohari Tun Datuk Abang Openg said there were still schools that do not have laboratories, causing students to rely solely on memorising from books.

"Therefore, I told the Sarawak Ministry of Education, Innovation and Talent Development that we need to have a common lab that can be shared by schools that do not have a laboratory.

"In this way, only then can students really learn science subjects," he said when opening the Batang Lupar Brain Festival 2025 at the Sri Aman Riverbank on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Datuk Patinggi Abang Zohari said that he will be inaugurating the creation of a new chip in the UK where a native of this state succeeded in producing a chip based on gallium compound, making it the first of its kind in the world.

He said this new chip is used in the automotive industry whereby its raw material comes from rare earths.

"I will be inaugurating in the UK because there is a new invention by a Sarawakian for the first time in the world, namely a wafer-based chip not made from silicon, but from a material called gallium compound chip," he said.

He stressed that although Sarawak has'rare earth resources, its production technology has not yet been mastered.

Therefore, the government will send students up to the PhD level to master this technology to understand the production process of the material from own sources.

Also present were Minister in the Sarawak Premier's Department, Dato Sri John Sikie Tayai, Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development, Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, Deputy Minister of International Trade, Industry and Investment, Datuk Dr Malcolm Mussen Lamoh, Deputy Sarawak Secretary (Economic Planning and Development), Dato Sri Dr Muhammad Abdullah Zaidel, Sri Aman Division Resident, Mahra Salleh, heads of departments and other guests of honour. - UKASnews